Rose Water is a love letter to my wife, to language, and to the spaces where cultures intertwine. As an Iranian and an American, our relationship is shaped not just by words but by silences, gestures, and the quiet ways we learn to understand one another. This project began as I learned Farsi to deepen my connection to her culture and to intimacy itself.

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Rose Water is a love letter to my wife, to language, and to the spaces where cultures intertwine.

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Through photography and poetry, Rose Water captures the quiet, everyday moments where love is felt beyond words. Some images present poems written in Farsi, echoing the beauty and effort of learning another's language. Language in this work is shared but not mirrored; English carries the public narrative, while Farsi appears as an intimate, handwritten trace of shared experience.

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More than just a portrait of our relationship, Rose Water speaks to those who have navigated love across bordersshaped by geography, language, or emotion. It is an invitation to see meaning in the spaces between words and to embrace the quiet beauty of culture and intimacy.

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About

Seth Adam Cook is an artist based in the Bayou Teche region of south-central Louisiana. Inspired by the area’s swamps and marshes, his versatile studio practice often combines photography with other creative media, imbuing a deeper sense of meaning through material and technique choices. He earned a B.F.A. in studio art from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2016 and an M.F.A. in photography from Indiana University, Bloomington, in 2020. Cook's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with features in publications like Lenscratch, SHOTS Magazine, and Der Greif.

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