DAO

DAO (道) means the Way, the underlying pattern in nature.

In this series, it refers to the Way of Water: the idea that water adapts, endures, and always finds its path.

Water reshapes itself and always finds a way.

This body of work follows that principle: the force, restraint, redirection, and transformation we see in water mirror how places and people reveal their own nature.

I create photographic mini-series inspired by places that recognise themselves in this idea.

Each series is rooted in one of the two expressions of DAO:

WU WEI — effortless flow
ZIRAN — natural force and raw character

These principles determine the visual language of each series.

The principle is chosen based on the place's vision.

DAO is not about documenting water. It is about understanding a place's core identity and translating it into a visual language.

Liza Angèle at work, photographing water, wildlife, and the people who live close to them.

What follows is a glimpse of how my work takes shape in dialogue with places that have moved me around the world.

Each series grows out of a site’s vision and its relationship to the waters that define it, ocean, river, or lake.

If you believe your property carries a clear identity that could be translated into a dedicated series, you’re welcome to reach out at the bottom of the page.

I review invitations personally and take on only the projects where the philosophical and artistic fit is unmistakable.

XALA (Mexico)

XALA expresses ZIRAN, the instinctive return to one’s own nature, seen in turtles moving back into open water and finding their path without hesitation.

NIHI (Sumba, Indonesia) - FREEDOM

DAO showed up in force and freedom, wild horses running along the tide line.

LEGENDARY EXPEDITIONS(Tanzania) - SYNCHRONICITY

DAO here was about collective movement, flamingos moving as one, following the same path across shallow water.

Baines River Camp (Zambia)

Bains River Camp embodies WU WEI, deliberate, controlled movement, seen in the quiet power of crocodiles slipping through the currents of the Zambezi.

Saint Regis Cruise (Mediterranean)- CONSISTENCY

DAO in the Mediterranean was consistency, referencing the steady blue horizons and uninterrupted calm of the seain summer during the St. Regis voyage.

Cosmopolitan Hotels (London, Antwerp)

Cosmopolitan hotels recognise themselves not in the geography of the water, but in its character.
DAO interprets each place through water’s forms, calm, forceful, or atmospheric, no matter where the image was created.