Ephemeral Field Journal: Book launch and introducing Skywater

We celebrated the publication of the book, Ephemeral Field Journal: Climate + Love in Claude Monet’s Garden (Kehrer Verlag, September 2025) by Artist-in-Residence Sarah Schorr with an essay by CSWR Director Charles Stang.

When Claude Monet settled in Giverny in 1883, he designed a flower garden full of impressive color compositions for observing light and time. American artist Sarah Schorr understands Monet’s garden as a creative, living laboratory. From the tiny teardrops of rain to the steady stream feeding the water lily pond, the images in this book were inspired by the movement of water in Monet’s garden. In his essay, Stang meditates on water worlds, drawing on the ancient philosopher Thales and the contemporary Italian philosopher Emanuele Coccia to better appreciate Schorr’s images.

Stang and Schorr will also introduce their new project Skywater, a multimodal philosophy of water, drawing on their relationship with Walden Pond, in dialogue with Henry David Thoreau’s writings on Walden and other local waters.

SARAH SCHORR is an American artist and researcher with a studio based in Denmark. A captivation with light, water, and modes of embodied contemplation runs through her work. Schorr’s art has been widely exhibited since her first solo show at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York City. Preparations are underway for upcoming shows at the Blanche Hoschedé-Monet Museum (France) and Imago Lisboa (Portugal) in parallel with the publication of her new book, Ephemeral Field Journal: Climate + Love in Claude Monet’s Garden (Kehrer Verlag, 2025). Her work is also currently installed in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. Since earning her PhD in media studies (2017), Schorr’s research has focused on the continual evolution and transformation of photographic methods and theory in relation to emerging media.

CHARLES M. STANG joined the Harvard Divinity School Faculty of Divinity in 2008. His research and teaching focus on Christianity in late antiquity and, more broadly, philosophy and religion in the ancient Mediterranean world. In 2017, he became the director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School.