Martina Amati is a freediver and London-based contact who plunges herself down into the depths of the ocean tens of metres at a time. Stylist.co.uk catches up with her ahead of new freediving art exhibition Under, to discover what it’s really like to disappear into the blue.

“I was first introduced to free-diving years ago in Sardinia, in my early twenties. I’ve always been used to the water: my father was a sailor and I was brought up by the sea.

I did a scuba diving course, and one day managed to swim under water for a distance of 75 meters without any fins or a breathing tank. I just thought ‘oh my god’.

Om my first proper freedive, I remember just feeling the cold of the water, and then the purity and silence. I remember the incredible feeling you get after the first time you have the desire to breath, and you kind of just mentally tell yourself to relax, that you don’t need to breathe, that you’re fine.

That is amazing, like entering a new world.

It’s like learning to walk for the first time, or going up to the moon.

“It’s the strongest form of meditation I have ever experienced”: the life of a female freediver