Sponge diver Photograph

Throughout history the price of luxury has often been death. So it was up to the mid 20th century for the sponge divers of the Greek island of Kalymnos, who lived and worked under extraordinary physical and psychological conditions to feed the demand for natural sponges. The best of these sponges were to be found at the edge of human diving endurance. The mark of manhood for kalymnian divers was intrepidity to the point of death by diving so deep and staying down so long that they suffered nitrogen narcosis – this was a culture where the bends became a mark of virility. The death and paralysis casualty rate for Kalymnian sponge divers until the late 1960s ran at an average of 7% and one man in three was either dead, crippled, or seriously injured before he reached marriageable age. I have been visiting Kalymnos since the 1980s and being a keen diver soon became aware of the island’s joyous and tragic connection with sponge diving, which was the principal commercial activity until the twin onslaughts of synthetic sponges and tourism dramatically changed the economy. This change has made it less and less necessary for the men of the island to risk the perils of the sea to make their living and so since first visiting the island I have noticed a steady decline in the number of elderly, wheelchair bound gentlemen crippled by the bends as a legacy from their profession as sponge divers.

To mark this profound passing of a generation I wanted to recreate a snapshot of one of these proud old divers using the photographic tones of the 1970s, as if it were a kodachrome image from a family album. Statistics from ‘Human Biology 1967 Volume 39 Kalymnian Sponge diving’ H Russell Bernard, University of Illinois.

Photography:Giclée on Other

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:23.6 W x 15.7 H x 0.4 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.