44 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY NOVEMBER 28-DECEMBER 4, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com FACE TO FACE They are divers, photographers and friends of 30 years. Chuck Davis and Ryuijie also have a dual exhibit in the Monterey Museum of Art that wraps up on Sunday, Dec. 8. Davis is a local cinematographer and photographer specializing in underwater photography. He participated in expeditions with the late Jacques Yves Cousteau and his son Jean-Michel. His photography has been published in Life, National Geographic and BBC Wildlife. Ryuijie was born in Otaru, Japan and moved to the U.S. as a child. Now a Monterey resident, he learned underwater photography while stationed in the military on Guam. Ryuijie also has a career in lithography, while his photography garnered a reputation for his exquisite platinum/palladium prints. The Yu-gen | The Language of the Sea exhibit of underwater works is curated by Richard Murai, a local photographer and former assistant director at the Center for Photographic Art. The images show wildlife, kelp, light and water, reflecting free diving as part of an artistic practice. They use traditional processes of silver and platinum printing. Weekly: Is this your first dual exhibit? Davis: Yes, even though we’ve participated in group shows with our diver/photographer friends. We’ve known each other for about 27 years. We took a wonderful platinum printing workshop together. Ryuijie: I think photography connected us before diving. Hard to remember. Davis: We both have been free diving since we were young kids. So we started to dive together. Because a partner is needed for that. When using breath-hold techniques, you don’t want to do it alone. We watch out for each other because it is beautiful down there, but it can easily swallow you up. How deep do you go, and for how long? Davis: We go for a minute, maybe a little longer. With one breath. Ryuijie: Maybe 25-45 feet. We don’t push ourselves. We are both in our 70s and there are some physical limitations. But we are planning to go as long as we can [mutual laughter]. Light fades very quickly when you go down with no flashlights in a kelp forest. Davis: Diving and spear-hunting translated very well into the art experience. We are hunting with our cameras. And what are you showing? Davis: Different styles and different visions of the same object. We work with non-traditional subject matter. I guess my pieces are abstract. Ryuijie: If subject matter was important, the photos wouldn’t be in black and white, where light is the most important thing. I stay away from color because it has an emotional impact. That said, I do have a series in color—botanicals frozen in ice—that I’ve been working on for 25 years now. What is the role of the ocean in this? Davis: Since childhood, I’ve developed an intimate, emotional connection with the undersea realm, the seemingly boundless liquid region that covers some 70 percent of our planet’s surface. Yet it is all too often perceived as disparate from terrestrial existence. Some of us need to be underwater. There’s a book about it by marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols, Blue Mind. But I got hooked on Jacques Yves Cousteau and Sea Hunt with Beau Bridges, Jeff Bridges’ dad. I started photography when I was 11. I had my first camera when I was 14. How does it feel to be underwater? Davis: For me, diving is a spiritual experience, emotional and peaceful. When you walk out of the ocean, you feel so good. It’s a liquid antidepressant Ryuijie: And it keeps us in shape, you know. Since we have been doing it since we were teens, our bodies have adapted. It keeps us going. Davis: Jacques Yves Cousteau has said, “We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.” I firmly believe that we are born of the sea. We are part of the ocean, and it is part of us. We are inextricably connected. Whether knowingly or not, our reverence for the sea and ensuing stewardship that we may extend to it, we ultimately do to, and for, ourselves. It is this truth—this connection— that I strive to make visible through my underwater photographic work. It has been said that art imitates life, but I also feel that art and underwater photography can affect the living, and help bring about change. Yu-gen | The Language of the Sea features photographs by Chuck Davis and Ryuijie, on display until Dec. 8. Monterey Museum of Art, 559 Pacific St., Monterey. 372-5477, montereyart.org. Undersea World Two local divers turn their passion for the sea into unique photographic art. By Agata Pop˛eda Chuck Davis, left, and Ryuijie, right, are free diving partners and underwater photography partners. “Whenever we dive, we take a camera,” Ryuijie says. PATRICK TREGENZE GIVE THANKS! And give the gift of life to an older cat: donate to Golden Oldies on Giving Tuesday (December 3) through Monterey County Gives! Please support our life-saving work as the only older-cat-exclusive rescue in Monterey County. Support our programs and ensure these cats have a safety net for their Golden Years. Donations can be made online at montereycountygives.com/cats through midnight Dec. 31st. You can also donate by check (please call us at 831-200-9232 or email info@gocatrescue.org for information). If you would like to sponsor our next ad, please contact us! 831.200.9232 www.gocatrescue.org
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