Undersea Exhibition on Sunken Ship off Florida Coast Creates Surreal World in Ocean [PHOTOS]

An undersea exhibition on a sunken ship off the coast of the US state of Florida has been wooing divers into that surreal world through a photographic display.

Snapshots taken by Austrian photographer Andreas Franke have been placed along the deck of a former US Air Force missile tracking ship - the Gen Hoyt S Vandenberg - that went down in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and these show the world of humans juxtaposed with that of marine life.

The photographs show children playing, ballerina dancers performing, people queuing for tickets outside a multiplex and a woman doing her daily chores... all with sea creatures swimming around. Franke has created dozen of similarly digitally composed photographs for the underwater exhibition, held at a depth of 100ft. The event is titled Life Below the Surface and the photographs were first installed on the vessel in August last year, according to the photographer's official Web site.

The Vandenberg, a 523ft long vessel, sank on 27 May three years ago... not because of an accident or a disaster. It was deliberately sent to the bottom of the ocean and is the second largest ship in the world to have that honour - the idea was to create an artificial reef to attract divers, anglers and marine life. The ship was opened to the public on 30 May, 2009.

Despite the fact it is an artificial reef the Vandenberg has helped the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary become a habitat for 113 different species of fish and attracted more than 20,000 divers during its first year, officials have since stated.

The ship's new role - an art gallery - was also meant to boost the number of visitors/divers, as was the unique concept of the exhibition.

Check out photographs from the exhibition, held 100ft below sea level at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary