Over the years, I have learned a number of tricks that have helped me to take better photos of divers. You might want to give them a try on your next dive.

I had offered this kind of event before, and a lot of young aspiring models were really interested, but the expenses for them were much too high, some of them being students or not earning much money. So, rather than hold a shoot for just one model, my idea was to offer three or four young women the opportunity as a group, so they could share the cost of one expensive underwater shoot, just to try it out and discover whether or not underwater modeling was right for them.

When doing underwater photography in pools, I have always been irritated by the inherent “feeling of a pool” in the resultant images. What does one shoot in a pool? People! However, if it is not to chronicle dive training or swimming competitions, why do we have to include the pool’s tiles in the shot?

So, I decided to create a photo studio out of a pool. I bought a big piece of black material, made it a “backdrop” for a photo and installed an underwater light. As a result, I got a photo of a model that seemed to be hanging in weightlessness.

Some may wonder where the sense is in making a human being the main subject of an underwater image, whilst the underwater flora and fauna have so much beauty to offer. This is a legitimate question, which can, in a sense, be answered by human psychology. Human beings are “land animals,” and whether or not they are equipped with a diving apparatus, they are generally not designed for a life underwater. Thus, a photo of a human being underwater always creates a certain tension in the composition, especially for viewers who are not divers.

Underwater portrait and fashion photography is a unique form of art, allowing infinite creativity, pulling the viewer into the surreal, liquid world in which it was created. Holloway’s images convey this sense of surrealism. It is what makes her photos so powerful.

An underwater photographer based in London, Holloway discovered her passion for underwater photography in Egypt, when she was only 18. She fell in love with diving, and shortly after, began taking photos underwater as well.

Attitudes needed to change. I wanted to improve conditions and see what women divers in scuba gear could do to improve underwater images. So I established a school for underwater modeling in Korea to give women divers new skills and professional opportunities in the diving industry.

 

Photographing models

The description “model” applies to anyone human in front of a camera young or old, male or female, petite or large. In a underwater environment, for which we’re less than adequately adapted, we are at an instant disadvantage compared to the grace and splendour of its natural inhabitants, but looks aren’t always everything.

 

GS:  Tell us about your book, H₂O…

HS:  Well, what happens underwater to a human being is very different from what happens on land. If you blow out a little air, you are neutrally buoyant. One experiences weightlessness. That allows all sorts of interesting things to happen. It could be silly, like astronauts twirling around in the space shuttle showing off their weightlessness. I am more interested in beauty. I work with dancers.