Underwater art exhibit debuts in Florida Keys

KEY WEST, Fla. - An underwater art exhibit has debuted on a former Air Force missile tracking ship sunk in the Florida Keys.

Austrian art photographer Andreas Franke is exhibiting a dozen digitally composited images 93 feet underwater on the weather deck of the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg. The exhibit is at the National Marine Sanctuary.

Officials who spearheaded the 2009 scuttling said Sunday that Franke photographed the wreck last year and added other elements to create the artwork.

One picture depicts a girl wielding a butterfly net to capture fish shown in an original underwater image of the wreck. In another, kick boxers compete adjacent to one of Vandenberg's iconic tracking dishes.

The 20-square-foot images are encased in Plexiglas and mounted in stainless steel frames on the artificial reef.