“Agua Nacida,” meaning “water born” in Spanish, is a unique collection of large-scale underwater nudes by renowned fashion and beauty photographer Hugh Arnold. Amidst the unspoiled depths of the seas surrounding the islands of Fiji and Gozo, Arnold was inspired in part by the human life cycle. “Agua Nacida” explores the beauty of the human form and a symbolic transition from womb to womanhood, taking us on a parallel journey beneath the surface of the sea and our soul’s hidden waters. Immersed in the playfulness and sensuality of water, the swimmers express the cycles of Woman through fluidity of movement: the womb’s embrace, growth, discovery, sexuality, and of course, beauty. Arnold’s work provokes and invokes. It arouses reflection and understanding of man’s connection to a greater and larger world.

The evocative collection that reflects the ocean as a feminine element is captured in stunning imagery recreated as Lambda C-prints.

Lambda printing is a unique printing process in the field of photography. Combining the continuous tone of traditional chromogenic prints (also known as “C-Prints”) with the control of today’s digital printing, Lambda prints, or Digital C Types, are often considered to be some of the most beautiful and accurate prints available. Like a C-Print, the image becomes embedded in the emulsion, meaning that no ink or dot patterns are visible as in standard digital inkjet printing. The prints are generally high gloss, transparent, or metallic, allowing for even greater clarity, sharpness, and color saturation than other photographic processes.

2016

In documenting the submerged human body, Hugh Arnold manages to express something essential about being human — a subtle energy that stirs beneath our skin. Arnold’s underwater photographs are a metaphorical map of human development: what it means to age, to love, to connect, and to struggle. Upon examination, it’s easy to forget that Arnold’s subjects are not angels in flight. It is this preternatural manifestation juxtaposed against humane subjects that lends itself to Humanity–it is an expression and understanding that all bodies are transcendent, even in physical form. There is a sense of connectivity through our very being, as though divinity is a direct response of being human.

“Agua Vida” meaning “Water Life” in Spanish, is a collection of large-scale panoramic underwater nudes by Fine Art photographer Hugh Arnold. Shot with Olympic swimmers in the seas surrounding the island of Gozo, Agua Vida is a journey through life’s most significant moments.