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Christy Lee Rogers   is an American, underwater fine art photographer and filmmaker born and raised in Hawaii. Growing up along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, her inspiration was always anchored in her native element: water. It has been an inspiration and muse to Rogers for years, and she has developed her own characteristic and unique visual style, in which a multiplicity of entangled bodies delicately float in an underwater world, and are captured using the refraction of light between water and air.

Although Rogers clearly falls into the realm of contemporary photography, the conventions and boundaries she has broken in that forum led to her collections being compared to that of Baroque painting masters. For example, Caravaggio’s contrasts between light and shadow, Gentileschi’s focus on movement, and Rubens’ rich color palette.

The scenes Rogers’ has created, however, are set entirely beneath the surface of an illuminated pool. This allows each piece their soft, brushstroke-like quality and allows her to envelop the models in an angelic aura.

By incorporating and studying nontraditional elements such as the relationship between movement, color, water and light, Rogers is capable of transforming and manipulating the artistic medium into an ecology of emotions.

Most recently, Harmony, an excerpt from her Muses collection, was selected over 374,000 images from 195 countries around the world and gained Rogers the esteemed honor of 2019’s Open Photographer of the Year Award from Sony World Photography Awards.

In addition, Rogers was commissioned in 2019 by Apple to create multiple images using the new iPhone 11pro. A process behind-the-scenes video was also created about her and her shooting process on the project.

In 2013, the Angers-Nantes Opéra in France used her work to represent their 2013–2014 performance season. Her image “Our Hopes and Expectations” was chosen for Kunst Fest Spiele Herren Hausen (Performing Arts Festival) in Hamburg, Germany. Her art has also been featured on album covers for Deutsche Grammophone, Universal Music Group’s All Baroque Box and, 80’s band, Wang Chung’s album , “Orchesography ”.

Early Life
Christy Lee Rogers grew up in Kailua, Hawaii and was captivated with expressing herself from an early age, developing her sense of drama and love of poetry. Although she has no formal training in photography, the artist obtained her BA degree in Telecommunications and Film. While studying, Rogers became interested in photography, and all of the creative aspects came naturally for her, on an experimental basis. Through trial and error, her photographic style was constantly changing and developing, while she was discovering new techniques suitable for underwater visions.

The water not only played a dominant role in Rogers’ childhood, but also formed the basis of her art practice. The water’s beauty and quietness captivated her, and consequently became not only an artistic source, but a dominant element of her art. With help of family and friends, the artist spent eight years experimenting, testing and playing with every possible combination the factors that affected the final shot. At a local pool, with her friends as models, Rogers began her journey into the world of underwater photography.

Technique
As a rule-breaker of conventional photography, Rogers’ idea was to create interesting and captivating effects by using physical properties of water and light.

Rogers spends anywhere from weeks to months preparing for her underwater shoots. From sketching to making notes on character, color, props, emotions and themes. Working with her models and the unpredictability of the light and water injects some necessary improvisation and surprising confluences. The water allows bodies to defy gravity and the fabric they wear to move slowly and fluidly. The result, with opulent colors and watery undulations, is rich and seductive.

Rogers shoots in swimming pools at night, working with her models in two-to four-hour sessions. The effects in her images are created naturally in-camera using the refraction of light and movement in different depths of water. The light refraction is a physical phenomenon – light bends when it passes from a substance of one density into a substance of a different density. The water, in which light travels slower than in the air, creates a higher optical density. Using this effect, and also by moving layers of the water, the artist produces dream-like illusions, intensifying the colors, and blurring and blending the portrayed subjects. The final result is a beautiful painting-like image, unique to her style.

As a photographer, she places a large importance on movement, drama, individual figures, light and shadow, and the sense of something greater than oneself. One of the characteristics of Rogers’ photography, apart from the dynamic movement and overt emotion, is her use of Chiaroscuro – a Renaissance-period term describing the use of strong contrasts between light and dark. Bathing in an abyss of boundless space, the light isolates the figures from the surrounding darkness.

Rogers’ idea of representing the element of water in an unconventional way led to her creation of Baroque themes in a modern world. The boldly colored and intertwined bodies she illuminates and captures beneath the surface are reminiscent of the seventeenth-century paintings of Peter Paul Rubens and Pietro Da Cortona. Rogers continually stresses how beauty, freedom, vulnerability chaos are inevitable conditions of the human experience.