the big blue in black and white.

Mark Under Breaking Wave 

once again, i stumbled upon
something awesome on
the website, brain pickings:

Kimi Werner and Dolphins #1

Diving Humpback Whale

wayne levin is a professional photographer, and recently published a collection of his works, called akule. his stuff is incredible. he shoots underwater in black and white, and who knew the great big blue would look so phenomenal in grey tones?

in july, he gave an interview promoting his book on NPR. here's some of what he says:

"Most underwater photographers are divers first, then they get into photography to capture the beautiful scenes they see underwater. I was a photographer first. My first serious underwater photography was when I finished graduate school at Pratt in 1983. I returned to Hawaii to teach photography at University of Hawaii, and decided to photograph surfers from underwater. My first attempts were in color, but the results were very murky blue on blue. Then I switched to black and white, and everything came alive."

(on being in the ocean:) "Things look different, visibility is more limited, and the atmosphere has more weight, density. Moving through this world is like flying; you can move in three dimensions, and be suspended above or below things. There are plants and animals, which are different from what we are used to seeing; they move differently. This all creates a possibility to take photographs that look different from anything I have seen before."

Pattern of Nenue, Nihoa

"I feel a sense of freedom, and I can feel myself relax, and my bodily functions slow down as I leave the anxieties of the human world behind. But the ocean has its own dangers. ... So there is a freedom in being underwater, but also a responsibility to always be aware of your surroundings, and yourself."

i love his work and what he has to say about it. the only time i've ever done any sort of "legitimate" diving is the couple of times i was able to snorkel during my trip to hawaii, summer of 2001. we took a huge catamaran out to this cove off of the big island and it was by far one of the most surreal, incredible and memorable experiences i've ever had. i just remember gliding through the water, taking in all the beautiful fish and coral, but every so often looking up from the ocean floor out into the open water. just, pure endless blue. i remember gazing out, having moments of being simultaneously paralyzed in terror and overwhelmed with awe. it's a feeling that i've never had duplicated by any other experience. the grand canyon was definitely grand, but just not the same. looking at levin's photographs evokes in me a remarkably reminiscent feeling of those moments. magnificent and eerie, all at once. 

Surfacing Spinner Dolphins

check out A TON more of his work on his website:

http://www.waynelevinimages.com/

and check out the rest of his NPR interview here.

Decompressing Divers and Galapagos Sharks, Laysan