THE INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT SHOWING SEA LIFE LIKE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE
Scroll through Aron Sanchez-Baranda’s Instagram page, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d stumbled across a digital archive of extraterrestrial life. Each video on the @waterbod account gets up close and personal with its subjects, capturing in detail the glistening of skin, the slimy texture of slow-moving tentacles, the rhythmic pulsing of hard-to-identify creatures.
However, Sanchez-Baranda’s field work is not life on Mars, but marine animals in the rockpools of California, documented over the best part of a decade on the shores of San Mateo County. Working in solitude with no formal education in environmentalism or biology, Sanchez’s journey started almost by accident as he wandered across beaches to clear his head and came across wildlife he didn’t realize existed.
His approach is unique but simple, posting the beguiling marine species that he comes across along with their official Latin names, always maintaining a consistent method and otherworldly aesthetic. The result is that @waterbod feels as much like an art account as it does an ecology resource. It stands out on the feed, and consequently Sanchez’s earthly experiments have attracted attention – @waterbod now has over 130,000 followers and he recently created a video for superstar avant-garde musician Arca. To learn more about his process and forays into the wild, we spoke to Sanchez-Baranda about documenting unusual marine life in places close to home.
Visuals by @waterbod
“My earliest – and I think most significant – memories of wildlife and art are from when I was very young, before entering school. They lacked any immediate requirement of context, explanation or retention, the only criteria for my interest being whatever sensory trigger the experience touched.”
Aron Sanchez-Baranda
Q & A with Aron Sanchez-Baranda
How did your journey documenting California wildlife begin? When did you realize there was such intriguing wildlife near where you live?
Around ten years ago I began walking on beaches near where I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area, in what now seems a reflexive effort to clear my mind, or at least distract myself temporarily from a difficult time in my life. I noticed, washed ashore, the bodies of marine mammals, birds, and invertebrates. I was fascinated by the beauty of their texture and form, sometimes abstracted beyond immediate recognition. As I walked farther and more regularly I increasingly found more, often living, wildlife.
You've got a distinctive style — your videos get up very close to the subject to capture minute movements, the glistening of skin, the textures of animals. What is it about wildlife up close that excites you artistically?
Abstract sensation. My earliest – and I think most significant – memories of wildlife and art are from when I was very young, before entering school. They lacked any immediate requirement of context, explanation or retention, the only criteria for my interest being whatever sensory trigger the experience touched. Part of making my work now is seeking access to those sensations again, maybe a kind of path back to the interior of personal reality.
Some of your work seems as though it could be life from another planet, it's beautifully alien – do you consciously want to present the work like this?
Not consciously, no. Nor do I feel evoking a particular reaction is necessary. I can say that my connection to what I make is invariably linked to an intense feeling of familiarity, of returning to a place I’ve been before, but I encourage anyone else to engage with their own process, I think it applies just as much as my own.
How did the collaboration with Arca come about?
Arca and I met and became friends through mutual appreciation of each other’s work. The idea to collaborate on a video for her song “Madre” came up during a series of conversations we had in 2020, but the process to create the visuals I used began in 2017 before we’d met. It was then that I began trying and failing to film the animals shown in “Madre” to my satisfaction. The following three years gave me the needed time to produce the result I was after and when Arca and I considered a project together it felt natural to show her what I’d been working on.
You've spent a lot of time shooting along the California coast — have you noticed any changes to the environment over the past few years?
I have. In that short time I’ve seen more than one seemingly abundant species disappear locally. The variety and quantity of wildlife I observe dwindles every year in many cases. Other times, the proliferation of a specific animal – often in response to prolonged ecological issues – is impossible to miss.
Out of the wildlife that you've documented, do you have a favorite creature and if so, why?
I can’t think of one, I’ve been fortunate to continue seeing things that surprise and delight me. Although I haven’t yet, I would very much like to see and work with bioluminescent algae in the wild.
How do you find the wildlife you're shooting? Is it simply just heading out and seeing what you can find, or do you research where certain things are?
It’s my preference to find and learn most things incidentally. I usually enjoy working in an area without expectation or pre-existing plan. Over time I’ve become accustomed to the habits of some species, which can be helpful for certain projects, but I’ve found most observations I’ve made are also subject to change.
You've been shooting, or at least uploading, since 2015. How has doing this changed or shaped your attitude to the world?
Creating and sharing my art has affected my perspective on the ecological and social systems it functions in. During the process, the possibilities of these systems have expanded and contracted in ways that have been bizarre, wonderful, and challenging. No system has remained static for long and I’ve found that important to remember.
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