Dimitri Rebikoff

              1954
REDPATH presents …
Direct From Triumphal European Tour
DIMITRI REBIKOFF'S
EXPLORING SECRETS OF THE UNDERWATER WORLD

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Dimitri Rebikoff
Dimitri Rebikoff is the author of a number of books and articles on electronic lighting and underwater photography which have been published in French, German, Italian, Spanish and English.  He is the President of the Submarine Research Institute, Cannes, France.

Dimitri Rebikoff was born in Paris in 1921.  His father was an Attache of the Russian Embassy before 1918.  Rebikoff graduated in electrical engineering; became chief engineer of Radio Control, Lyon, France.  For three years was a civilian prisoner of war in Germany assigned to repairing and making radio sets and instruments.

Following the War he made and patented the first electronic flash lamp in Europe: Eclatron, and then Ikotron (Zeiss).  He made and patented the Rebikoff colormeter and the 25,000 watt second electron flash studio for Draeger and for Studio Jean Chevalier in Paris.

In 1949 he patented his electron flash torpedo.  In 1950 made the first color undersea movies with his movie torpedo.  Since then he has made from three to six underwater color movies each year which are the features of his phenomenally successful European lecture tours—already six times sold out in the Film Festival Palace in Cannes.

Available for lecture engagements in the United States between February 15 and April 15, 1955, and again during the season of 1955-56.




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Paul Cherney
Paul Cherney is active in the affairs of the Society of Photographic Engineers and many other professional associations in both the U.S.A. and Europe.  He became associated with Mr. Rebikoff as Technical Advisor to the Submarine Research Institute of Cannes, France, in 1950 and has contributed greatly to the development of the equipment that has opened to the camera the mysterious realm of the colorful new world beneath the sea.

A graduate of the University of Vienna, he is known in the United States, Europe and the Far East for bringing about closer coordination in photographic research between the industry centers of the world.

He is a Major in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and was Air Technical Intelligence Liaison Officer to the RAF in the European Theatre during World War II.  He is still retained as Consultant to the Department of Defense and frequently called upon to survey important developments in cinematography and optics.

Mr. Cherney is available throughout 1955 and 1956 for lecture engagements in the United States with the Rebikoff films, EXPLORING THE SECRETS OF THE UNDERWATER WORLD.



EXPLORING SECRETS OF THE UNDERWATER WORLD
DIMITRI REBIKOFF'S amazing underwater color films show for the first time the true colors of the sea bottom—colors of unbelievably bright red, orange, yellow and purple.  All are made possible by the Rebikoff invention of the motion picture torpedo.

You will gasp—just as European audiences are doing—when you see a diver poke the motion picture torpedo into a sinister-looking black hole, press the light and camera switch and then behold a view that heretofore could have happened only in a dream.  You will see a man-sized grouper, eyeing you wide-eyed, not moving and surrounded by sparkling jewel corals, bright sponges, lobsters and coral fish — and a timid octopus — all in indescribable colors.

You will see these firsts in underwater color cinematography:



WRECK HUNTERS
Salvage investigations of a Roman galley which sank about 100 B.C. This galley was built of mahogany and had a bronze anchor and a cargo of 3,000 containers of wine — still chemically pure although jelly-like in consistency and bitter in taste.

Salvage operations on the Rommel fleet off Tunisia.



MARINE LIFE

Deep sea jewel corals at depths from 165 to 225 feet.
Ondine, eight year old girl playing with a big octopus.
Timid plume worms supersensitive to touch.
Discovery of true colors of red and yellow Gorgonians formerly thought to be gray and black.
The Rascasse, the fish which changes both shape and color to blend with its environment even though there is no color to the human eye at those depths without artificial light.
School of wreck tuna (not the real tuna but as large — six feet and more — and more tenacious fighters when caught on the line).
Deep sea diver battling Conger Eel.
Catching a guitar fish (violin ray).
Activities during the making of the first Cinemascope 35 mm. underwater film with artificial light—a film shortly to be released in France.



SPONGE DIVERS OF DJERBA
Arab divers who remain underwater without diving equipment from five to six minutes and do this ten to twelve times a day.  See undersea colors which those divers never dreamed existed.




KODAKERY — The House Organ of Eastman-Kodak Says:
Torpedo Camera 'Shoots' Ocean Depths in Vivid Color
THE OCEAN DEPTHS are yielding their secrets — and great beauty — to Kodachrome film.  Powerful new brilliant-lighting equipment contained in a self-propelled waterproof torpedo—with a special camera attached—makes photography possible at extreme depths.  Designer of this Electron Torpedo is Dimitri Rebikoff, a French photographer, engineer and undersea expert, who is director of the Submarine Research Institute of Cannes, France.

Paul Cherney, consultant to the Institute, was at Kodak Office recently.  He was in Rochester to address a joint meeting of the Naval Reserve Units and the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences.  He showed two 16mm.  Kodachrome films of the Mediterranean depths, and stated that Kodachrome film has given the best results of all color films tried.


Skin diver films ocean depths with torpedo camera.


A qualified skin diver—a person wearing only bathing suit, face mask and Aqua-Lung strapped on his or her back, and rubber fins on the feet—can descend with the torpedo to depths of about 250 feet.  In fact, the torpedo not only moves under its own power but gives a free ride to the diver at a speed of two knots.

Operated by remote control at depths below 250 feet, the device can take still or motion pictures down to half a mile or more.  In this case, a television camera connected to a TV screen on the escort ship serves as a viewfinder.

Explaining that sea water rapidly filters out light, Cherney said that light intensity has been cut somewhat at 3 1/2 feet.  What's more important is that most of the red and green rays are filtered out even in shallow water; only blue is left.  Below 15 feet, natural light is so blue that all other colors seem to disappear.

From here down, light must be introduced close to the subject—or there is no point in using color film.  Even the diver sees no color until he turns on his torpedo light.

Then, plants, corals, rocks, living things are seen in full jewel-tone colors.  The deeper one goes, the more vivid and spectacular the coloring becomes, blues and greens giving way to brilliant reds mixed with delicate pastels.  One of the beauties he showed was a feathery anemone which snapped shut when touched.

Despite the fact that the human eye without additional light cannot see color here, the fish must be conscious of it, for Cherney's movie showed one fish changing color as it swam past various-hued backgrounds.

Deep down, one has no sense of direction, he continued—even some fish swim upside down part of the time.  But air bubbles always rise to the surface, thus giving the diver a clue to which way is up.

Underwater color photography will greatly expand knowledge in the fields of botany, geology, zoology and archaelogy, he explained.  The oceans cover 70 per cent of our planet—so actually more than two-thirds of the world awaits exploration.

The diver's use of an Aqua-Lung which allows him to operate without lines running to the surface—has greatly freed his movements in exploring sunken ships.  Cherney's movie showed divers going through a sunken Nazi ship and a Roman galley, the latter sunk off the coast of France about 200 B.C.  Amazingly enough, the divers here found 3,000 perfectly preserved containers of wine.


Here's torpedo, camera and powerful light source.


The U.S. Navy has a great interest in underwater photography, Cherney added, applying it for teaching films, for example to demonstrate underwater escape from burning oil slicks.  Another of the Navy's many uses is actual photographic inspection of underwater damage of ship's hulls.

Just from the pleasurable side, he pointed out that some people are spending vacations skin diving in Mediterranean waters.

And perhaps there is something to the talk of mermaids—for it has been found that women can stay submerged for longer periods and in colder water than men.


Skin-diving mermaid descending into splendor of underwater grotto



Exploring amphorae on wreck of 2,000 year old Roman galley



Remnants of German Battle Fleet off Africa at 160' below sea level





What they say about—
Exploring Secrets of the
UNDERWATER WORLD

THE ADVENTURER

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Monthly Bulletin of THE ADVENTURERS' CLUB of New York

Paul Cherney brought the evening to a close with one of the most amazing underwater pictures, from a photographic viewpoint, the writer has ever seen.

Mr. Cherney is Technical Adviser to the Institute at Cannes.  Research had been handicapped by lack of pictures so new light sources were developed and a torpedo-like device which pulls the diver at two knots and operates the motion picture camera was devised.  The result of these innovations was the picture we saw—parts of it had never been shown before—and a memorable experience it was.

The divers go down in teams and communicate with each other by means of a signalling system.  In magnificent color rendition, we saw them swimming through the wreck of a French steamer, the remains of a Roman vessel and wierd underwater rock formations.  Mr. Cherney called our attention to the bathing suit worn by one of the divers.  We saw shots of it above and below water and the color was identical.  Schools of gaudily colored fish and shots of delicately tinted coral brought oh's and ah's at every change of scene.  And when such exclamations come spontaneously from seasoned adventurers, it must be good!


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Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard's Newspaper for One Hundred and Eight Years


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Gazette
Established 1846
A Non-Political Journal of Island Life

EDGARTOWN, MARTHA'S VINEYARD, MASS.



Pictures of Jeweled Underwater Realm
Two Shows Needed to Satisfy the Demand to See Secrets of the Deep

It was necessary to have an extra showing of the underwater motion pictures at the Edgartown town hall last night, and this benefit for the Martha's Vineyard Hospital, sponsored by Mrs. Edward L. Stevenson, was a fine success.  The title of the program, Exporing the Secrets of the Underwater World, was singularly apt, and the audience was aware of discovering hidden mysteries of collor as the pictures showed divers with electric torpedoes descending amidst strange corals and other life of the deep.

Paul Cherney, recently a Vineyard summer resident, who is consultant of the Underwater Research Institute of Cannes, France, explained the methods of diving and the pioneering technics of underwater photography that are, for the first time, disclosing the real colors of the scene below the surface of the sea.  The photographic processes, brought to practical use in the electrical torpedoes, are the work of Dimitri Rebikoff.  Mr. Cherney explained some of the usages of the new technics, in cluding exploration, salvage operations, and so on.


Introduced by Iselin
Mr. Cherney was introduced by Dr. Columbus O. Iselin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  Dr. Iselin spoke of the analogies between mountain climbing and descents into the sea.

Going down, he said, has become easier than climbing high mountains, and it seems to me a great deal safer.  He added that diving with the simple apparatus of mask and breathing tanks is simple and safe under propert environmental conditions, just as mountain climbing is safe when there is no wind and no storm.  But climbing is extremely dangerous and perhaps deadly when there is severe storm

So, under the water, conditions are likewise controlling, and Dr. lselin said that on our coast we have unfavorable environment because of strong currents and poor visibility under the surface.  Therefore, he went on, we are very backward in this country because we have not had a mountain where the weather is good.

Mr. Cherney said that the first reel shown had become obsolete so far as the quality of the photography was concerned, and, indeed, the audience could see the marked advances represented by the second.  But the first was enchanting and novel.

What fascinated the audience most was the discovery of color among the coral growths of amazing variety and extent—brilliant reds and other hues, but not many greens or blues, and a rare interplay of delicate and pastel tints.



Upside Down Fish
Fish were seen swimming upside down in great comfort, and Mr. Cherney explained that up and down is immaterial in the underwater world.  Divers swim either side up and can easily forget which way is up.  But they can always inform themselves by watching the bubbles, for bubbles always rise.

Without the light cast by the electric torpedoes, the underwater world is shadowy and varied only in degrees of grays and blacks and other dim shadings.  Yet the fish must be aware of the actual color, for Mr. Cherney described, as the audience watched, a fish that changed color instantly as it swam past a background of any special hue.  The fish not only adapted its coloring to the surroundings, but its shape and form also.

Those who watched the pictures took out with them a memory of a jeweled underwater realm with the forms of graceful swimmers moving with apparent comfort and ease in the strange recesses.




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