The Sinking World

Emily Louise Smith:

Describe the origin of The Sinking World.

Andreas Franke:

In search of a new diving challenge a few years ago, I planned to photograph the Baron Gautsch, a former Austrian passenger ship that sank ninety-nine years ago and lies off the Croatian peninsula of Istria. I would have a good time, relax, and return home. But afterward, I could not stop thinking about the peculiar emptiness and tragic stillness of the photos. Something was missing. I decided then to use ships as a stage and animate the wrecks with scenes photographed in a studio.

Since you can travel to the Red Sea from Austria without crossing half the planet, I next photographed the Thistlegorm, a British freighter that sank during World War II. I took over one hundred pictures, but it did not have that special mystical thing a wreck can have. Aboard the lifeboat that carried me there, I found a magazine and, on its cover, a picture of the USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. I knew it would be the ship.

ELS:

Some of your photographs depict typical life aboard a ship, while others— the ballet class, for example—are less expected. Are your fictional scenes informed by a ship’s history or architecture? Sea life? Or perhaps something more intuitive?

AF:

The sea was cold and rough the Easter Day I dove to the Vandenberg. There, at an icy depth of 130 feet, I discovered its majestic, impenetrable silence. Scenes appeared to me: the little girl with her butterfly net, the ballerinas. While working on the production, I came up with more ideas until I had a series of twelve.

The Stavronikita, a former Greek freighter and the setting for my next series, is a symbol of irrepressible avidity. Immediately I thought of the European era of decadence, Rococo, its intoxicating extravagance and vanity. The wreck full of lavish life demanded a fictional world just as abundant.

ELS:

How important is the exhibition site to the relationship between viewer and photos? Did you consider ecological impacts when installing them on the ship?

AF:

The images belonged at the site, and once the idea entered my head, I had to pursue that goal. Joe Weatherby—whose company, Reefmakers, deployed the Vandenberg, the largest ship intentionally sunk in a marine sanctuary—shared my crazy idea and pushed the project through. After magnetically attaching a prototype to the side, we received the green light from the authorities; an underwater gallery was, ecologically speaking, entirely safe. During the four months the frames remained underwater, salt coated them with a patina, making each piece unique, inimitable. Though I knew it would leave some trace, I had not foreseen that nature’s work could be so expressive.

Seeing divers experience the photographs was so exciting I had to show these peculiar beauties ashore.