Beethoven's Music Captured In Milk

How do you photograph sound? There are various ways you could do it: you could take photos of people enjoying themselves at a gig, of an instrument being played, an opera singer unleashing the full fury of their voice. Or you could, perhaps, photograph the effect of sound vibrations rippling through milk. Which is just what New York photographer Sara Naim did for her series of images titled Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata.

The resulting images, ranging from serene to violent, are a simple yet striking visual representation of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” (above) abstracted into visual units. On her website, Naim talks about the history of the piece, and tells how it was composed for Beethoven’s blind pupil and lover Giuletta Gucciardi, who lamented not being able to see the moonlight. To compensate her for this, Beethoven wrote the piece as a sonic representation of the reflection of the moonlight off Austria's Lake Lucerne. So it’s fitting that this audiovisual cycle is completed by not only re-translating the music back into something that can be seen, but also the form is one that again, like moonlight on water, involves liquid.

For the full series visit her website.