Mohawk Project

The USS Mohawk CGC, an American warship from World War II, sets the stage for Andreas Franke’s third project in the Sinking World series.
The wreck, which serves as an artificial reef, is located off Sanibel Island in Florida and, with its more than 50 meters in length, creates space for coral assemblages and marine animals of all kinds.
In this series of photographs, the underwater images were set with scenes from the 1940s and 1950s, whose characteristic aesthetics depict a world in which dancing sailors and young women in petticoats stage an age of pleasure. In this way, Franke creates a surreal composition full of contrasts, which merge into a fairytale-like spectacle through the combination of underwater landscapes and stories from days gone by.