Combining water and the human body is the focus of “Aqueous Myths,” a series of photographs by Suda House on display in the Photospace of the Swen Parson Gallery.

House, a San Diego photographer, depicts the human-water relationship illustrating several mythological female characters of various ancient cultures.

House, who is a rough-water swimmer, said, “Photograph what you know best. Since swimming was what I was most into, I decided to see what I could do with it that could capture something of what rough-water swimming is about.”

ouse, who was also the former director of the Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies, said her photographs are based on the “partly scary and partly sensuous experiences” she had while swimming.

“Even with goggles you can’t see very far, so you only have your imagination to tell you what the possibilities are,” House said. “This act of imagining soon became the key fascination of my photography.”

NIU Gallery Director Michael Flanagan said the art works are closer to fashion photography.

“Even though models are revealed, they are not sexually suggestive,” Flanagan said. “The whole conception of making these pictures is unusual and unique.”

Associate photography Professor Philip Melnick said the photographs are innovative.

“They seem to have a lot of energy, both in thought and execution,” Melnick said. He said images are visually seductive and intriguing.

Working with the museum staff and a technician from Polaroid, House constructed a clear plastic pool 2 feet deep, 6 feet long and 4 feet wide. The pool was placed on the floor of a gallery and a mirror suspended above it at an angle which reflected a view of the pool into the camera.

“It was a tremendous challenge to photograph a person in a shallow tank in a museum and have the image come out looking like it wasn’t a tiny pool but more of a sea that the model was in,” House said.

Art Critic David Lewinson said, “The slightly unrealistic quality of the images makes them appear dreamlike, as though these were scenes in the world of imagination, not the world of senses.”

Lewinson said few artists have been successful at depicting mankind’s subjective relationship to the ocean.

“She created images that brilliantly capture the magical qualities of the ocean—qualities known by the subconscious mind and the imagination, qualities that are the substance of romantic and tragic legends, poetry, stories and novels since at least the time of Homer and the ancient Greeks,” Lewinson said.

The display can be viewed until Dec. 13. Regular gallery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, with additional evening hours Tuesday and Wednesday from 7-9. The gallery also is open Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.

The exhibit is sponsored by the NIU’s School of Art, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts and Illinois Arts Council.