ALEX SHER | REFLECTIONS | Water is powerful and possessive

“Water is powerful and possessive. It cautiously guards its dark abyss against air and light. Whenever any of the two sneak in, the water mercilessly devours them. Yet, water’s power gives way to its majesty, releasing the elements it once held captive. When a weightless beauty wrapped in shimmering bubbles shines before my lens, the camera takes pictures on its own. I am just holding my breath.”
– Alex Sher

Alex Sher is revitalizing the medium of photography. By bringing underwater photographs into the realm of fine art, he is exploring a captivating new artistic direction that redefines the medium, the representation of the female body, and the lines between figurative and abstract art.

His series “Reflections” features photographs taken by a Los Angeles underwater photographer, where he captures authentic reflections on the inner surface of the water. Using underwater cameras positioned at depth and looking upward toward the surface, Sher creates a surreal environment filled with swirling bubbles, duplicated human figures, and expansive colors. This composition challenges the boundaries between figurative and abstract art within fine art photography.

With over a decade of experience perfecting his underwater photography techniques, Alex Sher’s mission is to illuminate the world’s beauty through his lens. We are pleased to present six works from the “Reflections” series, along with other underwater photographs by Sher.

Once upon a time, when wheels were made of stone and phones had no cameras, lived my grandma. I loved my grandma and loved her stories about people and places she remembered. There was one story about a photographer grandma was telling in her photo lab. She never mentioned his name – just a guy who could make any woman beautiful with his camera.
I envied him. I wanted to be this guy.
I wished my grandma would say that about me someday. He knew some secrets about this photographer, and he took these secrets with him to his Holocaust grave.

Many years have passed. I’ve traveled worldwide, changing jobs and cameras, taking pictures of the most beautiful people and unbelievable things. Throughout my life journey, I hope to hear someday: “He is a magician; he makes life beautiful with his camera.”

ALEX SHER

“Alex Sher is one of the most outstanding photographers in the Los Angeles area. Alex has an Artistic, creative mind with photography and always comes up with great ideas to surprise his followers.”
~ Steve Whittington 2020

Alex Sher is an award-winning American underwater fine art photographer internationally recognized for his unique depictions of feminine sensuality. His artistic innovations blend figurative and abstract photography, creating compositions that could almost be mistaken for paintings.

The relationship between vision and emotion is both profound and reciprocal. A beautiful sight can instantly uplift our spirits, while intense emotions can sometimes blind us to the beauty around us. When visual stimuli and emotions align perfectly, they create a powerful resonance that can either plunge us into darkness or elevate us to a state of aesthetic transcendence.
Sher’s work aims for this latter combination, although he acknowledges that such artistic resonance can connect differently with each viewer, sometimes reaching only a select few, while other pieces achieve widespread acclaim.

Photography is an ideal medium for Sher’s explorations, allowing him to make countless attempts to pursue the perfect moment. This quest led him underwater, where he discovered an unexpected muse: the surface above. The underside of the water’s surface presents an otherworldly landscape—a vast, liquid mirror in constant motion, distorting reflections and fragmenting glimpses of the sky into ever-changing, mesmerizing patterns. From over 100,000 photographs, Sher distilled this vision into his twenty-piece series, “Reflections.”

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 1962, Sher immigrated to the United States with his family in 1995. His photographic career began in Ukraine during the early 1990s, but it was in America that he started experimenting with underwater photography, marking a decisive shift toward figurative fine art. His work gained significant recognition in 2015, leading to exhibitions at prestigious venues worldwide, including the Louvre Museum in Paris. Following his solo debut at the Bruce Lurie Gallery in Los Angeles in 2016, Sher has mounted seven exclusive exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows and prominent art fairs.
Sher’s work has been featured in 78 magazine and book articles across 12 countries, and in 2018, he published his own book titled “Mermaids.” Beyond his artistic practice, Sher has mastered underwater coaching, generously sharing his technical and artistic innovations with models and aspiring photographers alike.

See the full article in Art Market Magazine Issue #103