The Photographs of Bruce Mozert

Byter Martin S sent me an email suggesting that I might be interested in the 1950’s underwater photography of Bruce Mozert.

I looked him up and found that his underwater photography was unlike any other that I had seen.

Mozert's own website at http://mozertstudio.com describes his photography as "some of the most memorable kitsch photography in the era of Florida's tourism marketing boom of the 1950's."

Born Robert Bruce Moser in Ohio in 1916, Mozert used the clear waters of his adopted town, Silver Springs in Florida, to photograph women underwater doing things that they would ordinarily be doing on land. He is still alive, colourising and digitising his photographs. 

Bear in mind that this photography and staging was before CGI, digital, photoshop and fancy special effects.

Mozert with specially developed camera housing for underwater photographs. At the time, underwater photographs were taken from a drum housing the camera and camera operator. Mozert developed a housing for the camera using galvanised steel, a rubber tyre and liquid cement, the first underwater camera.

Mozert in later years

Here are some of Mozert’s photographs:

Example of colourised image.