Daily life
Elegant dancers practicing on the deck, a young girl runs on deck amidst a sea of fish happily wielding a butterfly net. A disturbing man, tightly bound in a straight jacket, is being wheeled down a narrow, darkened deck path.
Immerse yourself with familiar stories in the mystical scenery of the sunken USS Vandenberg.
An extraordinary transformation
The artwork is exhibited about 7 miles off the coast of Key West and stayes there for about 4 months. During this time marine life settles on the exhibits and completes them with the final touch by the sea itself.
24.27 N, 81.44 W.
These coordinates mark the spot of the final resting place of an old brave soldier, the USS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg.
In 2009 it underwent a complete change when the creaky steel monster became a mystical bearer of secrets.
In May of that year, the Vandenberg was lowered down into the darkness of the ocean off the coast of Florida to become an artificial reef, where it would dwell in rigor mortis at a depth of 130 feet. It did not take long before life took back its dominion on the bulky 10.000 tons. A life draped in proud, majestic silence, which endowed its opposing emptiness with rich content.
This lively, animate, secretive nothingness, this menacing, wild emptiness would haunt and seduce the renowned Austrian photographer and passionate diver Andreas Franke who visited the Vandenberg in 2010 for his firs first time, followed by many…
Andreas Franke shooting on the Vandenberg, 2010