What Lies Beneath?
2006
Digital photography

What Lies Beneath? is a series of digital photographs taken of buoys on Lake Annecy, France. Living in Annecy at the time, Sarah Mayhew Craddock was inspired by the monumental impact that weather has had carving out deep gorges forming mountains and lakes in the region, and the impact that nature has on one’s quotidian existence. This time in the Haute-Savoie proved pivotal as Sarah developed an interest in attempting to represent the power, and mystery of nature through art; and it was in Annecy that she became captivated by representing layers of consciousness and existence through art.

Hauntingly entitled What Lies Beneath? these images show buoys bobbing, barely moving, on a deep, glassy, still, lake full of ice cold mineral water. Reaching up around the lake are snow-capped mountains suggesting that the water in the lake is incredibly cold, and the lake incredibly deep. Pedalos bob on the water, tethered, awaiting the good weather, and the temperature of the water to rise before entering this deep water can become pleasurable and ‘safe’ once again.