Into the blue


Laurent Ballesta is a multi-award winning marine photographer. The Frenchman captures unique and captivating moments of marine life Words: Paul Dargan


H


is canvas is the world that exists way down below the crashing of the ocean waves, and in many cases he is the first to discover realms that date back well beyond the first humans. It’s little wonder that


Laurent Ballesta’s work is regarded as being so important, as ONBOARD discovers in our exclusive interview. Ballesta, one of the world’s best and most-famous marine photographers will turn 50 in 2024, at which point he will have spent well over half of his life bringing knowledge up from the depths of the oceans. That’s because, in photographing everything from coy sea life creatures to rather more stubborn specimens, he is enriching not just his own passion, but our knowledge of the seas.


Ballesta doesn’t focus his attention on one area, neither in specialism nor geography. From the balmy climes of the Mediterranean to the teeth-juddering Antarctic, his work is reliant purely on the sanctity of the subject.


“It’s been an amazing journey,” begins the three-time Wildlife Photographer of the Year. “When I was a teenager, diving and watching life underwater, I fell in love with it. I think from very early on I knew this is where my career would lay.


“That world I found so captivating. It was dangerous but enlightening, it was expansive yet incredibly private; and although I realised I could bring back incredible photography of what was down there, ultimately by doing that I realised I could


74 | SUMMER 2023 | ONBOARD


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