Water is a natural element for Christy Lee Rogers. She grew up in Hawaii, where she used to surf and swim in the ocean. The water gave her a sense of freedom and joy. When she moved to dry and rigid California, she missed the energy of the water. “That was how I started; jumping in the water and taking pictures was a natural instinct. As I saw my first underwater images, I found them magical. And the pictures I took from above the water had a beautiful bending and refraction of the water. Then I got interested and started investigating how to push this further.”

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She started to experiment by asking relatives and friends to dive into the water. “Everybody got into the water for me as a test model while I was playing with lighting and colour. I went through about seven years of experimenting before finally launching my first collection, Siren.”

During the experiments, Rogers photographed both underwater and above. “I noticed that I didn't quite get the effect I was looking for when I was underwater with the camera. I started photographing from outside the water because of the bending and refraction of light. Light travels slower in the water than in the air. I could use this effect to make my images more painterly.”

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Light

Each series of Christy Lee Rogers starts with an idea she has thought about for a long time. “I work like a painter. I will focus on one series each year. I might get maybe 20 or 30 images a year. There's usually a concept around each collection, like celestial bodies, which was my fascination with space Nebula and how we're all connected. We typically view ourselves from this very small sphere here on Earth. My new collection, Luminescence, is about the idea that light and the electromagnetic spectrum, in general, surround us all. Luminescence, the spontaneous emission of radiation due to the energy in atoms, is able to generate light without the power of the sun, heat or fire. It's just like you generate the light yourself.”

The light used in this series is strong and directional and has often been compared to the claire-obscure light of the Italian painter Caravaggio. “The light I use comes from intuition because I am a night owl. I like shooting at night-time when the surroundings are pitch dark. I would have these cheap spotlights, creating directional and dramatic light, which is more fascinating to me. I didn't consciously think to create Caravaggio light. I started from the concept of two contrasting forces, light and dark, which are essential to humanity. We have the dark and the light in us, the good and the bad.”

Light as beams of photons has always been a mystery for scientists, being matter and energy, particles and waves, at the same time. “I always get lost in this idea that there is no mass in light. There's nothing you can touch. It is fascinating trying to understand the universe and ourselves through the images. Especially with the Luminescence collection, I started to question myself: can we feel or know this invisible energy around us, of which we are seldom aware unless we really look?”

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Colours

Most of the night-time images are taken from above in a local swimming pool, often covered with different clothes in the basin, creating a black or sometimes a coloured backdrop. “I use a deep pool or other times, I'll use a four-foot-deep pool and line it with all kinds of fabric. When these colours are moving, they start blending all together. It's like paint moving. I go back and forth between the colour and the black background.”

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I do gravitate toward strong, saturated colours.

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The colours in Christy Lee Rogers' tableaux are as vivid as the light she uses. She uses strong reddish, blueish, purple, and green colours. Similarly to the vivid lightning, the colours seem to radiate energy, representing different wavelengths varying with the colours. “I do gravitate toward strong, saturated colours. And when you're lighting the way I do, you're going to get these crazy pops of intense colour. It's like playing with paints. Most people love colours like candy. It makes them feel good. Each wavelength represents different feelings. I think that's why I like the colour red because red is passion.”

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Renaissance  

We live in a time of wars and tensions, making life sometimes heavy. The lucid images of people floating in the water defying gravity seem a form of consolation to the beholder. “Since the beginning, when I started to create work, I noticed that if I took a deep dive, I could crash down, and afterwards, somehow, I just survived. It doesn't matter how hard things are. I want to show people they are more magical than they ever imagined. We get swamped down with problems, hatred, and anxiety. I want to create a world that shows that things can be softer and still be fun, dramatic, and passionate. Life doesn't have to be dangerous, dark, or sad. I feel humanity is ready for a new phase. I am tired of this long string of wars and madness. It takes the artist to develop ideas by imagining another world. We need a new renaissance.”

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Losing gravity

The floating people with their angelic faces, arms wide open, and colourful curving cloths draped around them make us think of a careless status beyond Earth's gravity. Christy Lee Rogers affirms these unearthly reminiscences: “There's that floating feeling in the water like you're free of gravity and free of all the problems. Water reminds us of this freedom. Water is magical, and it makes this planet alive. We pollute the oceans, not realising that water has a memory. It is important to remember that water makes us feel free.”

The models in the water look like angels in baroque paintings, serving as divine messengers, but they also remind us of the hydriads, the water nymphs in Greek mythology. “I am a little obsessed with angels. Maybe I feel like we need more angels. And I like that representation of pure beings that protects us. I was also fascinated with nymphs. But I never make exact replicas of these creatures. They inspire me in a free way to make my waterworks.”

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You have to go with the flow of the problem, and then somehow you reach some magical point.

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Less religiously and mythically, we might interpret Roger’s artworks as calls to our subconsciousness and dreams, where we often feel ourselves floating and sometimes even suffocating, like drowsing. “I think that's what makes life more liveable and enjoyable. Some people have had this near-death experience. They come back with this full energy. When you can be okay with death and life, you're free. Getting over that fear of death, you might realise that you are more than all of that little life.”

When Rogers is shooting underwater, it feels like a Zen meditation. Her thinking mind is shutting off, forcing her and the models to let go. “It is letting go of the mind, just letting go of all the tensions in the body, and not thinking about, how am I going to breathe? I have to remind myself that, while I'm shooting, I have to let go of all the tensions about the success of the shoot. You have to go with the flow of the problem, and then somehow you reach some magical point.”

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Merging shots

It is not always possible to get all the models, lights, and clothes in one shot right, which is why Rogers sometimes merges her different shots into one big tableau. “I started to stitch different shots when I wanted to get epic scenes, and I couldn't photograph it all at the same time. Merging them together is hard because you have to match very particular lights. Putting images together was a big eureka moment for me. I realised I am more interested in communicating my vision than limiting myself by technical issues. Now, I can capture different plates and combine them in the best way.”

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Christy Lee Rogers is a visual artist from Kailua, Hawaii. Her obsession with water as a medium for breaking the conventions of contemporary photography has led to her work being 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 featured in their behind-the-scenes process films. Rogers' art has been featured on several album covers, including “Orchesography” for the 80s 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.’

www.christyleerogers.com

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