‘Creatures from nightmares’
Russian scientist and undersea photographer Alexander Semenov is a zoologist who studies invertebrates, based at Russia’s White Sea Biological Station near the Polar Circle. Semenov is chief of the dive team at the station, where he always has at hand a semi-professional camera complete with underwater housing and strobes.
Semenov calls this recently posted series Worms Renaissance, writing that “creatures from dreams and nightmares are here. They are real and unbelievably beautiful.” They are macro shots of marine worms.
See other creatures from Semenov’s undersea work on Flickr, Behance and 500px.
Above: Semenov at work
Comments on whether these works are beautiful . . . or nightmarish to you?


10 Comments
anngrafics
Amazing! I am always stunned by the life that is out there and how beautiful it can be. Of course the fact that these are alive is a bit creepy, but at least they are under water somewhere …. 🙂
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crescentmoonramblings
Beautiful in this context. Pleased not to meet them up close though.
boomerontario
I agree, not up close, ever!
The Wanderlust Gene
Such brilliant colours and pantasmagorical shapes and contortions! They’re even more stunningly otherworldly than those extraordinary imagined animals you posted a few years ago and except for that last one, where I could see the creature’s mouth, far too exciting, visually to be in the least scary!
boomerontario
Love the contortions comment. True, they are a twisty bunch. I think they’re exquisite, but I’m not sure I’d want them in my dreams!
Jorge Millán
Amazing! So actually we have fantasic creatures.
boomerontario
Yes indeed. Beautiful and fantastical, true.
Resa
Scary and gorgeous at the same time, I’m sure I could find some under my bed in the middle of the night.
However, I’m too, afraid to look, or hang my arm over the edge!
boomerontario
That’s so true about the arm over the edge.