Sidney Régis

Sidney Régis observed that underwater photography was mostly limited to documentary photography rather than exploring its artistic dimension. Art history and photographic theory only addressed less than half of our world, above sea level. This realisation triggered ten years of research to explore light, colour, perspective, movement, texture and time through the prism of water.

His series Silent Lights and Migration are the result of this journey, where water is the form, the object or the trajectory. Régis’s underwater photography captures the eerily empty underwater landscapes after major disasters, including a tsunami in Thailand and a hurricane in Martinique.

This poetic and conceptual work shows what usually cannot be seen, inviting viewers to re-engage with nature, the environment and others. Everything is interconnected…

Sidney Régis (b. 1979 in Guadeloupe) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Paris, France. Over the past 25 years, Régis has worked with/in water as a free diver, an underwater dancer/actor, a collaborator for scientific programs, and an artist.

His practice oscillates between complex processes (free diving during a photoshoot, innovative photo printing and 3D printing) and more intuitive approaches, such as gently finishing the prints with a brush or immersing the paper in various substances…

In 2017, Régis created the We Were Water & Air project, a transmedia and participatory art project that aims to reconnect a large public back to our most essential elements: water and air. He also founded the Impact Through Art Foundation.