A rogue with an eye for salvage – and the ladies – Ray: A Life Underwater is an affectionate portrait of one man’s deep sea diving career, told through his extraordinary collection of marine artefacts.
Like a modern-day pirate, 75-year-old Ray Ives has been scouring the seabed for treasure his whole life.
The former commercial diver has plundered the deep for over fifty years, bringing to the surface anything that glittered — even gold.
In a shipping container near the water, Ray tends his museum of cannon, bottles, bells, swords, portholes and diving gear.
He even still takes to the water in a 1900s diving suit.
Produced and Directed by Amanda Bluglass www.amandabluglass.co.uk
Editor and Director of Photography: Danny Cooke www.dannycooke.co.uk
Dive photography: Neil Hope www.divingimages.co.uk
Soundtrack: Tony Higgins www.tonyhiggins.org
The journey underwater reflects the awe of parallel worlds. When man looks to the stars, he sees a longing for his knowledge to fill the vacuum of space. If a man closes his eyes underwater, it is in all likelihood that this is the same feeling. Of weightlessness. Of conquering new frontiers. Of being where the human body was not built to be.