Creatures that others fear have always fascinated me. I remember watching Jaws for the first time when I was ten and instantly I had found the creature that captivated me the most. Jaws inspired me to find out everything I could about sharks. From then on every school project involved sharks and this has continued through my years at university and has now become my obsession.
I always aspired to be a shark diver and at university I was determined to turn it into a reality. While I was studying Graphic Design at Camberwell College of the Arts in London, I quickly learnt to dive and after a few trips to the Red Sea I invested in my Nikon F70 and Subal housing. As a student I also discovered the charity the Shark Trust and throughout university I volunteered at the UK dive shows. In 2001, my final year at university the Shark Trust announced a shark awareness and bull shark trip to Walker’s Cay, Bahamas. I instantly signed up, put another few thousand pounds on my credit card and planned for my trip of a lifetime.
I arrived at Walker’s Cay with a photographic proposal. I intended to use the trip as part of my final year project therefore my entire degree rested on my bull shark photographs. My fascination has always centered on peoples ideas about shark, listening to their fears and anxieties. With the bull sharks I wanted to document the moment these fears turned into fascination. I photographed the divers watching sharks and crossed my fingers that the results would award me my degree.
I left Camberwell with a 2.1 in Graphic Design and in my last few months there I applied for the Bruce Church Scholarship. The award was for a grant to undertake a personal travel project that was inspired by work undertaken on the degree course. It was open to all graduates from Camberwell, and I won. I was finally able to travel the world in search of the sharks and the stories that have made them an important part of our culture.
For me this project is ongoing and slowly I hope to share a collection of my stories. I recently returned from Tiger Shark Beach in the Bahamas, here I continued to watch people watching sharks and can see how the shark diving industry is helping to keep the sharks in the ocean. Now the proud owner of a Nikon D700 and Aquatica housing I hope to post a selection of these photos soon as I continue to travel the world photographing sharks and collecting stories.
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