Reimagining the symbolic language of 17th-century Dutch still life, Alexander James Hamilton’s Vanitas series engages the traditions of memento mori through a distinctly contemporary lens. Photographed entirely underwater using analogue techniques, these large-format works are composed in-camera without digital manipulation.

Drawing on the tenebrist traditions of Caravaggio and the chiaroscuro aesthetics of the Dutch Masters, Hamilton designed & built a specific lighting systems to harness light caustics created in the water, thus enabling him to literally paint with light as it refracts through water. The resulting images possess a true painterly depth: flesh and flora seem suspended in time, echoing the stillness of oil on canvas more than photography.

Each tableau is both a meditation on impermanence and a technical feat. Live butterflies, decaying fruit, flowers, and symbolic artefacts are carefully arranged and submerged, captured at the precise moment when movement, light, and reflection align. The works evoke silence, entropy and beauty, all held within a medium that resists permanence.

Printed to museum archival standards, these works are conceived not only for acquisition, but for enduring relevance in bridging classical themes with present-day concerns in the context of long-form cultural memory.