112 pages Photographs by Ben Thouard Translated by Marie-Julie Arnould-Labbé 30 x 24 cm Language: French & English Hardcover Printed in shades of blue on uncoated textured paper; cover with selective varnish and hot-foil stamping Publisher: Mons 2025
The third book by Ben Thouard, an ocean photographer based in Tahiti since 2008, closing the series begun with Surface (2018) and Turbulences (2021). Eighty photographs made underwater over four years, in which the subject is no longer the wave but the light passing through it: slow shutter speeds, varied lenses and angles, what Thouard calls painting with light, down to his series on jellyfish. The title states the method: water used as an underwater darkroom.
The object follows the work: uncoated matte paper, printing in shades of blue, a cover in four blues. The book was self-financed by the photographer and printed in France. Aqua Obscura is also the title of his exhibition at the Board Culture Festival in Biarritz, October 2026.
