When salt water gets in your vision (and camera)

Here's the unique story behind the artwork of my upcoming album Surface Tension.

The picture above has one of my favourite photography stories.

Years ago, I loved to shoot film and I had a novel underwater camera - the Konica Mermaid. I shot miniatures, so I decided to see how this camera would work shooting a small military figurine underwater.

I found a shallow tidal pool, placed the figurine in it, and started to click. All was going well until I made a ridiculous blunder: I pressed the film door release latch - while underwater! Needless to say, salt water flooded the insides of my waterproof camera as I desperately tried to shut it.

I was gutted by the mishap.

I didn’t think the film would be salvageable. But that evening I went home and developed the roll hoping that something would be there. It was C-41 film, so I push-developed it at high temperatures and added extra development time in hopes that it could bring out lost details.

After drying the negatives I discovered the intriguing photo.

The figurine had its head breaching the surface, its shoulders were reflected in the water above. The film had a purple cast, probably caused by the push development. Its numerous speckles were from salt exposure. Also, notice the newton rings on the centre-left of the picture. The negative was warped from the salt water exposure. This warping made the negative to touch the scanner, causing that effect.

It is an imperfect beauty - and its why it is one of my favourite photos I’ve ever taken. It is also a visually perfect segue for my album Surface Tension, an album to come out about 15 years later!

I had just finished writing the title track ‘Surface Tension’ earlier this year. The idea was that surface tension is the barrier between two entities that only love can permeate.

At first, I didn’t think of the photo for the album - the negatives were in a old box somewhere in the attic. But as luck would have it, I found the figurine I used as I was clearing out stuff for charity. That brought back the memory of the photo shoot. And a perfect cover for the album.

In addition, the back cover from the album was also from the shoot. It had similar artifacts such as the purple cast and scratches on the negative. Here the figurine was knocked over by the incoming tide.

So an happy accident 15 years ago was rediscovered and repurposed for a music album about love!