Vintage photographs of mermaids

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Mermaids or Sirens are mythological water creatures or spirits that have appeared in the folklore and popular culture of almost every sea fearing civilizations during the last few thousand years. Often depicted as beautiful women with lower portion of body resembling fish tail, these legendary creatures managed to create around them both the atmosphere of romantic myths and horror stories. In the beginning, mermaids represented the unknown of the sea, dangers of open water, and unexplored water territories, but as our culture and science evolved to modern state, mermaids and sirens took a firm hold in our imagination and became part of art and media. As the early human civilization formed around the rivers and seas, their religion often had a great focus on the dangers and wonders that were hid in them. Because of that some of the earliest known gods were depicted as some combination of men and fish, with year old Babylonian god Ea bringer of knowledge, arts and sciences, later known as Oannes by the Greeks being first one. As the time went on female sea gods appeared, and the first one that had the greatest resemblance to the mermaid was Assyriangoddess Astargatis, who decided to hide herself from the mortals after she accidentally killed one of them.

We guarantee that all our images are not reprints, they are original photos from a press archive, the youngest photos we have are 30 years old and the oldest over years old. This photograph originates from a press photo archive. IMS Vintage Photos is selling photos that come from editorial press photo archives in Europe and dating back to the early 19th century.

One of the lesser-known but fascinating parts of Japanese culture is that of the Ama pearl divers. These women specialised in freediving some 30 feet down into cold water wearing nothing more than a loincloth. Utilising special techniques to hold their breath for up to 2 minutes at a time, they would work for up to 4 hours a day in order to gather abalone, seaweed and other shellfish. The most profitable pursuit however was diving for pearls.