The photographer who fell in love with the “infinitely small”

A softly-spoken in Brazilian in her thirties, with blond hair and blue eyes, Andrea Laybauer is an incredibly talented photographer from Farroupilha, Rio Grande do Sul. Laybauer, who is now based in Sao Paolo, has built her reputation on turning her photographs of simple water drops into works of art.

A revelation

Andrea launched her photography career in 2001, but it wasn’t until eight years later that she started specializing in macrophotography, focusing her lens on the fragile curve of a match head, the shimmering colors of an iris, or the strange morphology of a fly. Then Andrea began wondering what a drop of water would look like as it hits a liquid surface. Noticing that water drops work like wide-angled lenses, similar to those used by landscape photographers, she decided to project different images – a row of daisies, a sunset, a shot from a film, and even a portrait of Nelson Mandela – onto the water’s surface. It’s an inventive way of reminding us how water is both rare and irreplaceable.
The result is stunning.

Using water to reveal our world

“Using art to reveal the importance and value of water.”

Depending on the image projected onto the water drop, some of Laybauer’s photographs are decorative while others are commercial and socially aware. Each image is also unique. “I can’t predict what the lens is going to capture, but it’s really rewarding when the images make people – or me, for that matter – stop, take notice or be inspired to act.”
Laybauer uses art to reveal the importance and value of water – a basic element that makes life possible.

Her official website
Her Flickr account

Main picture: Drop Shots, Crédits : ©Andrea Laybauer