Have you ever wondered why mermaids wear a clam shell bikini top instead of, say, a blouse?
It's because the salt in the ocean water collects on clothing and then crystallizes, and after a while that blouse would look more like a salt sculpture than an article of clothing.
This is the concept explored by Israeli artist Sigalit Landau in her photo series Salt Bride, featuring images of a dress which Sigalit left hanging in the Dead Sea for 2 years.
The progress shots captured over a three month period show the ocean waters naturally transforming the dress into an encrusted couture dress fit for Neptune's wife Salacia.
Here's a bit about the concept behind Salt Bride:
The concept was inspired by S. Ansky's 1916 play titled The Dybbuk, in which a young Hasidic woman becomes possessed by a deceased lover's spirit, though engaged to be married into a wealthy family. The story is rich with romance and sorcery, which Landau aimed to emulate. The original Salt Bride garment is a replica of the one worn in the dramatic production in the 1920s, while the salt serves to symbolize that supernatural force, bewitching the black fabric into the new appearance of a white wedding gown. The photographic process, too, stands as a metaphor: just as the garment had to be immersed to undergo its metamorphosis, each printed image was necessarily developed by liquid emulsion.
-Via My Modern Met