Luminescence
By Christy Lee Rogers
Sony World Open Award Winning photographer and visual artist Christy Lee Rogers has released a new collection of underwater photographs titled "Luminescence" which have a strong resemblance to paintings from the 16th century.
Christy Lee Rogers is a visual artist specializing in underwater photography and videos, known for using Chiaroscuro lighting in her works, and is often compared to Baroque painting masters like Caravaggio. In 2019 she won Open Photographer of the Year at the Sony World Photography Awards. She is a two-time finalist for the Contemporary Talents Award from the Foundation François Schneider in France, and was commissioned by Apple to create underwater images with the iPhone 11Pro, as well as being featured in their behind-the-scenes process films. Rogers' art has been featured on several album covers, including “Orchesography” for the 80’s band Wang Chung, and her images were selected for the 2013–2014 performance season of the Angers-Nantes Opera in France. In 2020 she created the cover image for the 2021 Lavazza Calendar ‘The New Humanity.’
Christy uses Baroque elements as a way of expressing "the power and beauty of the human form," portraying the human body in ways that are both sensual and powerful. Her use of the Baroque style adds a theatrical quality to her work, creating images that feel both timeless and modern. Luminescence was created using models submerged in water and extreme lighting in order to evoke dramatic and ethereal scenes, and the illusion of space and gravity-defying movements.
The Baroque style originated in 17th century Italy and is characterized by dramatic lighting, intense emotions, and grandeur which Rogers uses to create images that evoke a sense of tension and drama. The use of water as a setting also adds to the mystical and dreamlike quality of her imagery. Using multiple layers of light and dark water, she creates abstract and dreamlike imagery that is reminiscent of classical paintings, with water as a medium to convey emotional and symbolic meaning in her images.
In physics, Luminescence is the ability of certain objects to generate light through the excited state of its atoms when exposed to frequencies like ultraviolet light – which Christy is using as a metaphor for our own ability, when we concentrate on the positive, to create energy that lifts the world around us. Via her new series, which uses deep, pitch black pools with models intensely illuminated by high powered under-water spot lights, Christy hopes to shine a light into the darkest depths of our consciousness to excite the urge for us to generate our own form of Luminescence.
Light has captivated humanity since time immemorial, and has often been associated with spiritual freedom, health, healing and goodness; it is responsible for the creation of life on our planet through photosynthesis so the transport of energy by light plays a critical role in life itself.
Christy explores the idea that light surrounds the human body but is invisible to the eye, just like many wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. Beyond light, she examines the idea of other life forms in a science fiction type of reality, where in some images, splashes of color create nondescript forms, in weightless spaces.