Michael Rothschild

Light is to the photographer what stone is to the sculptor.  We focus it and bounce it.  We add it and remove it.  And ultimately, we use the light reflected back from our subjects to create our images.
 
But some subjects do more than just reflect the light – ambient or artificial - that we guide towards them.  Some of the living organisms of the deep can absorb and filter light, passing it through their bodies, with evolutionary benefits to both predator and prey.  What better way to camouflage, than to let the background show through your body?
 
Photo 1 is of a sea angel—a free swimming slug—floating in the shallow water over a shipwreck near New York City. Photo 2 is of an Atlantic sea nettle jellyfish, also over one of the local wrecks. Photo 3 is of a northern star coral, with its sticky translucent fingers always filtering the water for food. Finally, Photo 4 shows the larval stage of a flounder, whose body has yet to turn into a flatfish, with its eyes migrating to the topside.