From Nirvana to ‘weightless worlds’: How photos evolved underwater

Nirvana’s second album “Nevermind” revolutionized rock music and has sold at least 30 million copies since its release in 1991. Its cover also features one of the best-known underwater images ever made: the photo of a baby swimming towards a dollar bill on a hook. The music – including lead single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” – made the album a success. But that iconic image carved it into our minds.

Spencer Elden, the cover model also known as the “Nirvana baby,” was not simply thrown into a local pool in Southern California. Achieving this image took significant preparation, according to photographer Kirk Weddle.

“Since kids are always an unknown at shoots, I did several prelight and prefocus passes with a doll. Once I felt I had the framing, light, and exposure dialed in; the parents slipped the child into the water,” wrote Weddle on his website.

The mention of underwater photography may recall plastic-protected throwaway yellow cameras for snapshot memories of summer vacations. Yet water has long captured the minds of fine artists.

Unfamiliar territory

The first underwater photograph, a blurry image of aquatic life, was taken in 1856 by William Thompson, who didn’t actually dive in to capture it. This is why French marine biologist Louis Boutan is widely considered the early pioneer of the genre, as he was the first to plunge into the ocean to take the first underwater portrait, armed with a camera he had invented with the help of his brother Auguste.

Underwater photography grew from a long line of documentarians, who wanted to record wildlife beneath the waves. But the attraction to underwater images quickly branched out into the world of make-believe.

© Bruce Mozert. Reprinted by permission of Bruce Mozert and the University Press of Florida.

Bruce Mozert's underwater photography series was initially created as a commercial project for Silver Springs Park in Florida. Although the late photographer began the series as part of the park's marketing campaign, it now showcases a rare and romantic look at society at the time.

© Bruce Mozert. Reprinted by permission of Bruce Mozert and the University Press of Florida.

Monroe first stumbled upon Mozert's work while researching Florida's Silver Springs area for an entirely different book. He saw Mozert's work at a gift shop, and was struck by each photograph's composition: "They were stunning -- I found them to be distinguished by their visual finesse, technical quality and cultural currency. I wanted to know their source, so I went to the studio to meet Bruce Mozert."

© Bruce Mozert. Reprinted by permission of Bruce Mozert and the University Press of Florida.

Although this series began as a commercial project for the Silver Springs marketing team, Monroe points out how they effortlessly capture the concept of the American Dream at the time. "Like most everything else Florida, these images advertised the American dream. Mozert was not engaged with such notions of course; had he been the images would be too self-conscious to be so timeless and meaningful."

© Bruce Mozert. Reprinted by permission of Bruce Mozert and the University Press of Florida.

Monroe points out that Mozert's attention to detail and experimentation with props and materials allowed for each underwater photo to so perfectly reflect the on-ground scene it was depicting. "Tiny fishing weights ensured that the hula dancer's grass skirt wouldn't float upwards, the bubbly in the glass of champagne resulted from Alka-Seltzer tablets, the smoke from the barbequing steak was made from condensed powdered milk."

© Bruce Mozert. Reprinted by permission of Bruce Mozert and the University Press of Florida.

Even for an image such as this one, Mozert and his team tested materials and props underwater before taking the photograph. "They tested the effect of the current on the arrow as it left the archer's bow -- she had to hit the target. No air hoses are visible in these photographs (with slight exception, they were not used). Silver Springs required something else -- the illusion of verity was key."

© Bruce Mozert. Reprinted by permission of Bruce Mozert and the University Press of Florida.

This juxtaposition of everyday activities being conducted in an unexpected location is, according to Monroe, the most alluring element of Bruce Mozert's work. "Maybe it's the precision of how the photographs encapsulated the sensibilities of a time and place that makes them special and timeless. His photos are, to me, so compelling and convincing. His photos make us suspend our disbelief long enough for the sublime quality of this art to work its magic. There's an unmatched surreal quality to his work."

© Bruce Mozert. Reprinted by permission of Bruce Mozert and the University Press of Florida.

Although underwater photography is quite common in the industry today, Monroe points out that even now, few are able to capture these timeless moments quite the way that Mozert has. "None of today's underwater photographers, who are following the directorial mode of image making, are on the same wavelength as was Mozert. A couple of photographers back then also staged underwater imagery, but Mozert took it to a higher level. His work is more refined but still naïve."

© Bruce Mozert. Reprinted by permission of Bruce Mozert and the University Press of Florida.

Mozert's work often feature groups of friends or couples caught in social moments. "The photographs showed the same reality that defined popular white male-dominated 1950s culture. Mozert commented about the sensual quality of women's hair underwater, and men drove those vacation-bound cars."

© Bruce Mozert. Reprinted by permission of Bruce Mozert and the University Press of Florida.

Pin-up models are also common in Mozert's photography. "Attractive young women doing everyday activities underwater characterize his most intriguing work. They are novel but also fascinating, visceral and real -- in the sense that they don't suffer from the heavy-handedness of self-consciousness."

© Bruce Mozert. Reprinted by permission of Bruce Mozert and the University Press of Florida.

Although Mozert's underwater series were taken decades ago, Monroe points out that they are particularly captivating for viewers of today. "He never quite got the allure of his own work as being interesting photography in its own right. When I told him that I wouldn't be surprised by his work one day being shown at a Manhattan art gallery he almost rolled out of his chair in hysterical laughter. To him, it was all about making 'a saleable picture' back then for a few dollars."

As early as 1916, director Stuart Paton adapted Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” into what became an incredibly expensive production that used a system of mirrors to capture underwater scenes. But it was Bruce Mozert, the grandfather of underwater art photography, who first capitalized on the genre. He was an ace at creating seemingly impossible scenarios, such as a smoke-filled barbecue using a can of condensed milk. Florida was the perfect backdrop for Mozert’s interpretations of a homely 1950s way of life, and his images soon became an icon of the clear waters of Silver Springs – and the American dream.

Taking photography to new dimensions

Underwater photography has since grown further into an art of its own. Contemporary photographers Barbara Cole and Christy Lee Rogers have become two of the most prominent artists in the field, ingeniously using water as an artistic tool to transform reality. They don’t simply drag our on-land surroundings into a pool, in the style of Mozert, but rather take advantage of the submarine environment to create a dream-like alternate dimension.

“My goal since I began to exhibit in 1984 was to push the medium – to paint with a camera, resisting the realism that is normally expected of photography,” said Cole via email.

Canadian-born Cole, whose work will be on view at Galerie LeRoyer this month, entered the world of photography at the age of 19, as the fashion editor of the Toronto Sun. Her days were spent taking pictures and absorbing as much as she could from staff photographers, among other editing jobs.

Cole, who is “always looking for a way to transform reality,” started creating her ethereal compositions by using a Polaroid SX-70. “When that was no longer an option I decided to accomplish an analogous effect by shooting through water. It was a natural progression. I’ve been swimming almost daily for 40 years and the secrets and beauty of the way a figure appears underwater hadn’t eluded me,” Cole said.

Along with Cole, Rogers is changing the way water is used in photography to create images that can easily be mistaken for paintings and that push the boundaries of reality. Unsurprisingly, water has also had a great bearing on Rogers’ life. She now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and has exhibited globally, but prefers to shoot at sundown in Hawaii, where she grew up.

“Water was like freedom, purity and pure lifeblood. It was also an overwhelming powerful destroyer at the same time. A body immersed in it, free from gravity but trapped by the inability to breathe or survive under it, was a great dichotomy that was profoundly compelling to me,” Rogers said in an email.

In these shoots, the main working environment is inhospitable, so the connection between the image maker and the models becomes even more important. Rogers explained she has to be the “eyes of the models” because they have to keep them shut as soon as they’re submerged.

“This is how one of my favorite models Elisabeth Donaldson explains her experience, ‘when modeling underwater there is an initial moment of complete physical terror. You have blown out all of your air, and are underwater in darkness, searching for light, wrapped in fabric that grabs you and pulls you and covers your face,’” said Rogers.

She continued: “I don’t think these images are supposed to be possible. Every time I do a shoot, I think it’ll be my last because I don’t know if I’ll be able to capture it again. It’s so exhausting for me mentally and physically.”

Since the early 20th century, fine art underwater photography has evolved from Mozert’s surrealist, submerged renditions of life on land to Rogers’s and Cole’s painterly images, reminiscent of Botticelli’s billowy fabrics and floating figures.

“Short of working in outer space it’s the best place to be able to play with gravity. Under the water I’m dealing with a weightless world. Figures can be literally suspended, time slows down, and sounds are very gentle,” said Cole.

“Submerged: Four Series of Underwater Photographs” by Barbara Cole is on view at Galerie LeRoyer in Montréal until Nov. 1, 2018.