VH1's The Shot and some more underwater photography

So I don't watch tv at all; I don't even have cable. But a few of my photographer friends were talking about a new show on VH1 called The Shot, which is something akin to America's Next Top Model (so I've been told). The twist is that it's from the other side of the lens and the photographers are all pitted against each other for a chance at a Victoria's Secret campaign and a spread in Marie Claire. I've actually started watching it on my computer – which is great because there are no commercials.

Anyway, the last show featured the budding photographers taking pictures of a model underwater in beautiful dresses. It is something I would love to try out sometime if the waterproof casing, scuba gear, and underwater lighting were a reasonable purchase. But I saw their pictures and it sparked some pictures I knew I saw online a while ago.

After a bit of searching, I found Alberich Mathews. He has absolutely fascinating pictures of women underwater in flowing dresses and they looking completely ethereal and incredibly unreal. A lot of his work is tasteful nude women underwater as well. He had a site at www.valkyries.com which had a huge collection of his images but it seems to be down. You can find some of his work on flickr.

Here's one that I really like:


A little bit of googling will find a few more of his pics but I guess I'll just have to wait for the book that he's putting together, Rheinmaidens and Rusalka.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday and didn't spend too much time in the malls. And before you go back to work on Monday, you may even want to catch The Shot Sunday night.