Chris Newbert
Wildlife Photographer
"I dreamed of creating a portfolio book which was to become Within a Rainbowed Sea."
"Evidently unexpected incidents often have a way of becoming a defining moment in people’s lives. I was working as a dive guide in Hawaii, pursuing underwater photography mainly for something to do while my diving guests busied themselves with taking pictures on their own."
About the photographer
One day a lady on the boat inquired about my camera gear, as I was an early user of housed systems quite uncommon at the time, and I told her about my interest in photographing marine life as opposed to engaging in the sport of diving, and the advantages of housed cameras for this purpose. She then asked if I had any photos she could see, and so I presented some prints to her which I had had commercially enlarged.
She asked the price. I had never sold a photo until then, so I simply doubled the cost of having the prints made. Sheselected a few, pressed a hundred or so dollars into my hand and walked away smiling. I, of course, was even happier! But far more meaningful than the financial windfall was the fact that this event demonstrated to me that people would pay for aesthetically beautiful images of marine life alone.
This then became the exclusive goal of my work: to create the most attractive and perfect pictures of the natural world underwater that I was capable of making. Inspired by this first sale, I began selling my work at local art fairs and private print showings and developed a style that was unique and distinctive for this era. I then dreamed of creating a portfolio book of my work, which was to become »Within a Rainbowed Sea« – an enormous success both critically and financially.
But Rainbowed Sea was nothing more than the logical extension of the career path I committed myself to the day that lady had bought my first prints. I now find myself in an odd relationship with photography, as I still love the challenge of striving for that perfect image on film, but digital technology has taken over the world of photography. Yet, I love film, and will never use anything else.