Nereids is the debut book by photographer ANNA DAKI, who grew up in Odesa, by the Black Sea in Ukraine. Her work has focused on women, the female body and femininity since she started photographing in 2009. The earliest images in the book date from 2019, and between 2022 and 2025 she returned each year to the lakes around Berlin and to Mallorca, where the series took shape. Her photographs capture women in a raw, natural and poetic way, with water as the central visual and symbolic thread. This natural element also brought her back to the Nereids of Greek myth that she used to read as a child: “Tales of Nereids were always an immense inspiration for me, they were haunting men and swimming in complete freedom, but also the way they are united in sisterhood. Each and every one of the Nereids in the book embodies these souls. I was very lucky finding my heroines. The days I spent shooting at sea with the Nereids and in the studio with Garance were one of the most peaceful moments of my career,” she says.
The project expanded in 2024 after a shoot with floral artist Garance du Nord. Encouraged by editor and publisher Nicolas Huet Greub, Daki began pairing images of the female body with flowers. The photographer expresses her desire “to have the opportunity to show women the way they are and trying to bring motion and freedom in my shots. The unity with flowers is a way to show a delicate but also a strong side. Women and flowers are united through water from the mother’s womb where the new life is born over and over again, this symbolism is my way of honoring women and their strength throughout their life.” The book also opens with a manifesto by writer Alexandra Bondi de Antoni, which challenges the idea that women should be delicate by pointing out that flowers can break through concrete.
Published by 37.2, the book just has been launched alongside an exhibition standing at Sainte-Anne Gallery, until November 12th in Paris.
Review by Hanna Pallot
All pictures by Anna Daki