Steve Jones
Wildlife Photographer
"Photography allows me to raise ocean awareness."
"Expressions of a limitless fascination with ocean exploration, my imagery may be of the tenderness with which a squid tends to its eggs or the sheer awe of swimming over a colossal battleship wreck."
About the photographer
Events such as these stir contrasting but equally powerful emotions, and in order to preserve these moments, I have had to learn a wide range of photographic and diving skills. My images in this book represent that range, from equatorial seascapes that explode with color to the hostile, rarely seen world that lies beyond the range of conventional scuba—the resting place of the spectacular Malin Head wrecks. The techniques I used to make such images could not be more different. Some require complex photographic techniques yet standard diving practices.
Others involve less complex imaging demands, yet need highly advanced diving equipment and skills to take me to extreme depths. This portfolio is the culmination of a journey that began at a young age. My interest in photography came first but diving soon followed, an outlet for an insatiable urge to explore, and it was not long before I would combine my two passions. Over the years I have seen many beneficial changes. Advanced diving systems now allow us to go deeper, stay longer. State-of-the-art digital cameras allow us to work in darker conditions, capturing light that is barely visible to the human eye.
But for all these advances, something has been taken away over the past few decades, possibly lost forever. Our oceans are being emptied. Sharks are slain in their millions, reefs are poisoned and polluted and entire stocks of fish are vacuumed from the ocean to the point of extinction. Whilst the wrecks remain as legacy of mankind’s aggressive tendencies, reminding us of the horror of war, we now face the increasing absence of some of the species we once sought to photograph. Sadly, our images may one day be all that remains of many of the marine inhabitants and those empty oceans will present a catastrophe that may even transcend that of the two world wars.