Ernest H. Brooks II

About the photographer

Underwater photography is one of my main interests and, in the pursuit of dramatic marine images, I have dived beneath the polar icecaps and in almost every ocean on Earth. There is no denying that photography can be exciting, challenging and rewarding in a variety of ways. Over the years, I have witnessed tremendous change in the field of photography.

From the days of the black and white darkroom, to the present where technological advances have provided tools that take the eye beyond the darkroom into a greater realm of pure artistic expression. I’ve grown to love this new »digital craft«, its art, and the very private and personal time it takes to pursue perfection in a totally new area. – I still fail to find the words to adequately express motion in the way that photography can.

Early on, I deliberately chose the black and white process because of its archival qualities and its ability to display the unique values of light and dark, a process that has fascinated the human eye since the days of Daguerre’s plates did centuries ago. Long before our own existence, man sculpted the history of greatness in stone and painted his vision on canvas and scribed his teachings in word.

Photography affords us the tool to sculpt with light, to capture textures and shapes and to write volumes in a single image—creating indelible, lasting impressions of where we have been, of who we really are and where our future may take us. Recording the history of man and nature was forever changed by photography. It is in this light that my first book »Silver Seas« has come alive. This project has been a lifelong process and it has allowed me to share my fascination for photography and the sea with the world. The greatest reward for this effort is knowing just that.