Ballantine’s Stay True Stories: Benjamin Von Wong’s Underwater River

For the next chapter of Ballantine’s Stay True Stories, we worked with ‘hyper-real’ photographer Benjamin Von Wong to create a seemingly impossible photograph… thirty metres underwater.

Working with Benjamin Von Wong and a team of 35 specialists, we travelled in to the depths of the Mexican jungle to create an image like never before.

Floating deep underwater in the region’s famous ‘Angelita’ Cenote is a cloud-like layer of toxic gas separating the salt and fresh water. This visual phenomenon, like an ethereal ‘underwater river,’ was the location for Von Wong’s shoot.

With the shoot’s complexities, a team comprising world class specialists was required to help bring the epic production to life – from BBC Planet Earth’s diving experts to world champion free-diver Lance Lee Davis.

The result was a series of stunningly beautiful images, inspired by Von Wong’s Chinese heritage, taken in the most challenging of locations and documented in a three minute film – ‘Ballantine’s Presents Benjamin Von Wong’s Underwater River’.

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