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Living Lights of the Ocean: An avant-garde vision of the aquatic world

This colourful neon vision of an undersea environment is the result of a photo shoot at the studio of designer Roman Ermakov, who's famous for his avant-garde costumes, and which became the central objects in the images.

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Via direct submission. All images courtesy of Roman Ermakov.

Via direct submission. All images courtesy of Roman Ermakov.

The photo series, entitled 'Living Lights of the Ocean', was a collaboration between Ermakov, set designer Venera Kazarova, photographer Dasha Yastrebova and image retoucher Alex Tikhonov. The shoot took about three months to prepare for, and shooting was non-stop for four intensive days.

The team spent a long time discussing who these creatures were and where they might live. They eventually settled on the concept of strange, deep-water animals living in a dark ocean space where they illuminated everything around them; a world that Kazarova ended up creating entirely with black paper.

After the shoot, postproduction took about a year, involving work with layers and colour correction and additions such as algae, fish, glow effects and glare. The result is a unique sub-oceanic world populated by amazing creatures that you can't quite believe are actually people dressed in costumes.

Neon pink and yellow illuminated costume resembling a bioluminescent sea creature surrounded by glowing blue fish and dark aquatic vegetation
A glowing red neon lattice structure surrounded by undulating teal and blue tentacle-like forms against a dark background, part of Roman Ermakov's avant-garde costume design for the Living Lights of the Ocean series
Neon yellow-green glowing pinecone-like creature surrounded by deep blue bioluminescent forms and black paper seaweed in an avant-garde underwater scene
Neon yellow and pink glowing jellyfish-like creature suspended among dark purple and blue hanging tentacles and organisms in an underwater scene
A glowing orange jellyfish-like creature illuminates the darkness, surrounded by four bioluminescent blue jellyfish against a black background in Roman Ermakov's avant-garde costume series
Humanoid figure composed of glowing orange and yellow circles against a dark blue underwater backdrop with bioluminescent coral and plant-like structures
Neon pink glowing figure with honeycomb patterning surrounded by blue fish and coral-like structures in a dark underwater setting
Glowing neon yellow creature with wavy, undulating form illuminates a dark underwater scene filled with blue-tinted rocks, seaweed and fish silhouettes
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