Tyler Shields Dancer in the Dark For Sale

Tyler Shields' Submerged is a 2013 underwater photography series that captures its subjects — dressed in flowing gowns of silk and tulle — suspended beneath the surface of the sea, Grand Canyon-area lakes, and even a domestic bathtub. To achieve the images without the visual interference of scuba equipment, Shields taught himself to free dive, training himself to hold his breath underwater for up to six minutes at a time while directing his cast through each shot from below the surface.

The series' cast included actors and models such as Ana Mulvoy-Ten, Sarah Bolger, Holland Roden, Lydia Hearst, Logan Huffman, and Connor Paolo, each photographed drifting weightlessly as light filters down through the water and fabric billows around them in slow motion. The resulting images — including works such as "Echo," "Amphitrite," and "First Love" — trade the sharp, high-contrast staging typical of Shields' land-based work for a softer, more diffuse quality, the water lending the compositions a dreamlike, almost Pre-Raphaelite atmosphere.

Submerged debuted at Imitate Modern gallery in London in October 2013, running through early November of that year, and has since become one of Shields' most technically distinctive bodies of work. The Guy Hepner catalogue of the series comprises fifteen works. By shifting his usual scenes of celebrity and consumer culture into a weightless, silent environment, Shields strips away the props and gestures that typically anchor his photography, leaving only the human form suspended between control and surrender.