The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum has announced the re-opening of the exhibit Mermaids: Visualizing the Myths & Legends – Photography by Ralph A. Clevenger and Friends, 16 images printed on canvas.
Originally scheduled to open April 22, the exhibit was postponed because of pandemic closures. Now the exhibit will be open to the public Nov. 11-March 31, thanks to the support of George H. & Olive J. Griffiths Charitable Foundation, Mimi Michaelis, Jack Mithun and Mercedes Millington, June G. Outhwaite Charitable Trust, Alice Tweed Tuohy Foundation, and the Wood-Claeyssens Foundation.
There will be mermaid photo opportunities at the museum by appointment 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 1-2 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 13. Cost is $10 for museum members, $30 for non-members.
Most of the 16 images displayed in the gallery exhibit were part of an underwater photography course Clevenger taught at Brooks Institute. Each summer, students in the class would spend several days living on a dive boat off the Channel Islands where they worked on assignments.
Clevenger would invite professional mermaids to join the class on the boat and work with the students, creating portraits, visual stories, and conceptual images for their final class portfolios.
In Clevenger’s words, as the students worked, the models faced a number of difficulties: “There is no question about how hard the mermaids worked for these images. Wearing cloth-covered monofin tails
or silicone molded tails they could swim farther and faster than any of us.
“While students wore wetsuits in the cool 70-degree water, the mermaids were nearly naked, spending upwards of 30 minutes in the water at a time during a photo shoot. The models had to hold their breath and repeatedly dive down, release their breath, so their face looked natural, pose gracefully, then return to the surface. They did this over and over, all day long,” Clevenger said.
“We always provided safety divers, paddle boards for the mermaids to rest on, and hot showers and warm drinks on the boat in between shoots,” he said.
Clevenger grew up on the coast of North Africa and began diving with his father in the Mediterranean Sea at the age of seven. He went on to study zoology and worked for the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography in San Diego as a diver/biologist before attending Brooks Institute of Photography. Clevenger was a senior faculty member at Brooks for 33 years.
Based in Santa Barbara, Clevenger specializes in location photography and video projects of eco-travel, environmental portraits, wildlife, and undersea subjects.
Some of the images in the show were taken by Clevenger; some of them by his student photographers including:
John Kelsey, from Vancouver Island, who uses his photos to show appreciation for the natural world. He works at the ocean conservation organization Sea Legacy.
Eryn M. Brydon is a visual artist focusing on the human connection with the ocean. She has a BFA in photography from Brooks, and is now working on an MFA in photography and film from Mount Saint Mary’s University.
Beatriz Moino is from Guatemala and has a BA in liberal arts with a minor in photography from Universidad Francisco Marroquin. Her passion for photography led her to study at Brooks.
Liz Grady is a photographer, digital tech, and stylist in the photo industry.
Chiara Salomoni grew up in Italy and graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan before attending Brooks Institute. Her photography specializes in underwater wildlife and fashion. She is the co-founder of Mermaids for Change.