Musical accompaniment: Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin
You’re looking at the first underwater photograph ever taken! The year was 1899 and the photographer was Louis Boutan.
The man in the picture is Emil Racoviță, a diver for Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer, in France. That’s some diving suit, isn’t it?
Wikimedia
Racoviță holding a sign that says “Photographie sous-marine” (underwater photography). The sign is upside down, so it’s difficult to read. I’m very glad they didn’t do a retake! I love little imperfections.
old spirituals 
Unbelievable! 1899! I wonder how the camera was kept water tight? And the lighting, how was that produced for the photo? It appears the illumination is from above the diver, possible out of the water. I cannot imagine donning that heavy copper diving helmet and having it bolted onto a diving suit. A claustrophobic person would not be capable of wearing that diving gear.
I discovered the demand regulator needed for underwater breathing was first developed by a Frenchman in 1838; before that, oxygen was provided under constant pressure and flow. The regulator was improved by several others over the decades that included Jacques-Yves Cousteau, a Frenchman and renowned oceanographer (1942) and Ted Eldred, an Australian, in 1950. Prior to the development of the demand regulator, the diver was provided oxygen through a free-flow system that delivered the gas at approximately a constant rate.
The bulbous helmet in the photo has been replaced by the Kirby Morgan Helmet, currently in use by the U. S. Navy for deep diving. The U. S. Navy has a deep diving and salvage training school in Panama City, Florida, the largest diving facility of its kind in the world.
kirbymorgan.com
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You know I’m not sure how they did it. Maybe the photographer was in some sort of submarine type thing?
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Love Bobby Darin! Deep water, not so much!
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Agree on both counts!
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ocean photography is still in its early days. the darkness and pressure keep the deepest part of the ocean out of reach
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So true, Ruby. One of my favorite deep oceans movies is “The Abyss,” by James Cameron, and starring Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. It is a Sci-Fi genre film but does make one think about what is really on the bottom of the Earth’s oceans.
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Who knows what wonders wait to be discovered?
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Your heart is like the ocean, mysterious and dark 🎶
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