Underwater art exhibition debuts on Florida Keys reef
KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) - An underwater art exhibition has debuted on an artificial reef lying in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary about seven miles south of Key West.
On Sunday divers finished installing a dozen 3-foot-by-4.5-foot photo illustrations on the 523-foot Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg. The ship's bottom lies 140 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.
Created by Austrian art photographer Andreas Franke, the images are encased in plexiglass and mounted in stainless steel frames sealed with silicone. They're a continuation of the artist's "Sinking World" series which Franke debuted on the Vandenberg in 2011, two years after the former U.S. Air Force missile tracking ship was sunk as an artificial reef.
Frank says the manipulated photographs depict a flamboyant era of European style and cultural history.