Jason deCaires Taylor: sculpture submerged

Sunk to the bottom of the seabed are 350 human forms – cast from real people – with another 50 to be come before the Museo Subacuático de Arte officially opens next month Photograph: Jason deCaires Taylor / Barcroft Media

This is the work of Jason deCaires Taylor (pictured), a scuba-diving British sculptor who trained at the Camberwell College of Art, and whose previous installations include submerged figures in Grenada Photograph: Jason deCaires Taylor / Barcroft Media

“In a gallery, you get one perspective,” says deCaires Taylor. “Under water, you can fly over the sculptures, go between them" Photograph: Jason deCaires Taylor / Barcroft Media

"The light is very different and is affected by the surface of the sea. It has a lost feel to it, which I really like” Photograph: Jason deCaires Taylor / Barcroft Media

There is also a practical, ecological dimension. “When I became a diving instructor, I saw the decimation of the coral reefs, so I got into the idea of making art as artificial reefs"
Photograph: Jason deCaires Taylor / Barcroft Media/Jason de Caires Taylor / Barcroft Media

The sculptures are made from a special cement with a neutral PH, which will attract corals to grow on them, and covering 420sq metres, the underwater museum, he hopes, will draw people away from the fragile natural reefs Photograph: Jason deCaires Taylor / Barcroft Media

“I wanted to create an image of humans living in balance with nature instead of in opposition to it,” he says Photograph: Jason deCaires Taylor / Barcroft Media

“The ‘people’ will become a habitat. There is no way I would be able to create that kind of beauty with my own hand, it is only something nature can make” Photograph: Jason deCaires Taylor / Barcroft Media