Still Life in Water Colors

Nothing prepared Lily Honegger for what she saw on her first Red Sea dive in 1972. A scuba novice, she had braved only the chilly, relatively lifeless Mediterranean. But off the coast of Sudan, she discovered a community of coral and manta rays, reef sharks and tropical fish. She marveled at nature's palette, with its startling yellows, brown-tinged reds and bold blues. Then a fashion buyer, Honegger thought: "Someone should make a collection out of this."

A collection, it turns out, and a career. Photographic film has since become...