The other day I came across some creative underwater photos that bring about a sense of nostalgia for a time I never lived in. Don’t you love that timeless feeling!
Turns out they were taken by a literal pioneer to the world of underwater photography – from the art of, t0 the technology of – Bruce Mozert.
The Smithsonian Magazine wrote a great article about Bruce Mozert a couple years ago and, to me, the most exciting thing about it is that he is still very much alive with a progressive sense in his work to this day.
From Smithsonian Magazine:
“Everything has a picture in it, a sellable picture,” Mozert says. “All you got to do is use your imagination.” To create bubbles in a champagne flute, he would stick some dry ice or Alka-Seltzer in the glass; to simulate smoke rising from a grill, he used canned condensed milk. “The fat in the milk would cause it to rise, creating ‘smoke’ for a long time,” he says. With his meticulous production values and surreal vision, Mozert cast Silver Springs in a light perfectly suited to postwar America—part “Leave It to Beaver” and part “The Twilight Zone.” His images anchored a national publicity campaign for the springs from the 1940s through the ’70s; competing against water-skiing shows, dancing porpoises, leaping whales and hungry alligators, Silver Springs remained one of Florida’s premier attractions, the Disney World of its day. Then, in 1971, came Disney World.
It’s hard to compete with the corporate colossus 90 miles south, but Silver Springs is still in business. So is Bruce Mozert. Almost every day he drives the 11 miles between his Ocala home and his studio near the springs, where he mainly digitizes customers’ home movies. In 2004, he published a calendar featuring his work—photographs of young women posing under preternaturally clear water. He also takes the occasional commission for aerial photographs; at 91, he pilots the plane himself.
READ ON: The Life Aquatic with Bruce Mozert
Since Mozert’s early work, technology has raced forward to reveal some amazing advances. For example, check out 50 Stunning Underwater Photos from foward-design resource, Smashing Magazine.
If you are interested in ordering your own Bruce Mozert prints from the original negatives, visit Bruce Mozert’s Studio
Alternatively, featured in early Halibut Herald (.pdf days), I appreciate the underwater photography of Dustin Humphrey:
Dustin Humphrey Examples:
PHOTO SOURCES: BORED-BORED, SMITHSONIAN MAG, PHOTOSHELTER, CORBIS, STRANGE BEAUTIFUL
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