Like the tiny creatures he photographs, Ryo Minemizu floats and drifts in the world’s oceans while taking pictures. “The Secret World of Plankton,” on view at Foto Care in New York City from June 21 to 24, presents the otherworldly things he finds—larval forms of jellyfish, octopi, eels and fish, and translucent beings that look like flowers or butterflies. The organisms are the most abundant form of life on earth and play a critical role in the marine food chain. Working for stretches of up to eight hours at a time in the water and using a lighting system he developed (and is now promoting), along with a shallow depth of field, Minemizu captures animals and plants that might otherwise be invisible, transforming them into delicate neon abstractions. As Minemizu writes, marine life encompasses a huge range of species, but we encounter only a fraction of them. “The diversity of life is immense, but people only see part of it,” he writes in a statement. His mission, he says, is “to share these discoveries and wonders with as many people as possible.”

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