Titled A Perfect Medium, a new book of photographs by Bob Farese, Jr., is a meditative visual ode to water as the source of all life on Earth. Both a lyrical contemplation of the shapes of water and an environmental manifesto, the photo book published by MW Editions is aptly timed to be released on Earth Day, observed annually on April 22. It contains a collection of more than 60 mesmerizing pictures of diverse bodies of water that Farese took on a Sony digital camera in his native United States and elsewhere between 2020 and 2025.
Farese’s book invites viewers to take a (metaphorical) plunge into what he calls “a perfect medium” and rediscover water as the elemental force that sustains existence. To put together this symphony of pristine waters captured in various states and conditions, the photographer traveled extensively, starting from his home in San Francisco, California, and going as far as the Faroe Islands and Iceland in the north and Chile’s national parks in the south.
An established researcher by day, Farese, however, opted for a poetic, philosophical approach to his latest series, focusing on the emotional impact rather than the chemical properties of his subject. His method is phenomenological, studying water through close observations, not analysis. Some of the photographs featured in the book are coupled with compact maxims celebrating water and underscoring humans’ inextricable connection to this wondrous substance, which is the main constituent of Earth’s oceans and the fluids in all living organisms.
Farese’s photographs are hardly a set of waterscapes that you could place on a map. What we get to see instead of recognizable sights from across the globe are close-ups of water surfaces that teeter on the edge of abstraction. This series is a soothing blend of a documentary account and fine-art photography, immersing viewers in the enigma that is water right from the start as the cover picture seems to be spilling over the edge.
Being a scientist, Farese takes a moment to dutifully catalog his observations. The exact locales may not affect the emotional charge of the book, but it is somehow satisfying to know when and where the photographs were taken.
In a gentle departure from the book’s otherwise lyrical mood, Farese uses the afterword as an opportunity to bring up fundamental facts about water, its states and functions. Still, even this text is not strictly scientific, but also poetic and full of amazement at what water keeps giving us humans.
“From the cellular to the planetary scale, water is active, indispensable, vital. As a scientist, I marvel at this. As an artist, I want to share it.” —Bob Farese, Jr.
Bob Farese, Jr. : A Perfect Medium
Published by MW Editions (22 April 2026)
Photographs by Bob Farese, Jr.
Essay and Afterword by Bob Farese, Jr.
Design by Takaaki Matsumoto
Clothbound
144 Pages, 64 color illustrations, 9.125 x 12”
ISBN 978-1-969303-02-9
$50.00
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