Julius Motal

How long have you been working on this project? Basically, it started around eight or nine years ago. I, of course, have older pictures of man’s interaction with water, but I think as a series and as an intentional body of photographs, it started about eight years ago.   Where were you? Where was I? That’s a very good question. I think I had just arrived in Qatar. I went to Kerala in India, which is by the Indian Ocean. It’s basically one of the most aquatic places on earth. You’ve got the Indian Ocean on one side, and then you’ve got these amazing canals and waterways that basically occupy the entire inland. I have such a special bond with water – it has such a calming, soothing effect on me, like it has on most of us. Kerala, I think, was the perfect place for it.   Why water? I’m just fascinated by our relationship with water. You could argue that we came out of water as a species. You could argue that we spend so much time in our mother’s womb in water. Brains and bodies are composed of water, and I find our relationship and the soothing effects it has to be very, very interesting.   How many countries and bodies of water did you shoot across over the past eight or nine years? Rough estimate. I shot in 40 countries, but only 18 countries are in the exhibit. One of the things that I try to show – visually, at least – is the universal characteristics of this relationship that we have, whether it’s a fisherman in Kerala or in Sri Lanka or in Columbia. There are certain thing