INTERVIEW
Bar Jacks , Grand Cayman Island , 1990 but serendipity can play a role . It had taken us practically the entire assignment looking for a half-and-half that could cement the story of this coral paradise and the world around it . Then in the last couple of days we found this tiny rock island in the corner of the bay . I jumped in and said ‘ Oh my god - this is it ’. There was this field of blue and purple corals surrounding the island , in about two feet of water . So , I started shooting and then from the corner of my eye there appeared this father and son in an outrigger , and they started fishing . It completely brought the scene together .”
“ It was one of those brilliant , high tropical days when you look at the horizon and it begins to slightly polarise ,” Doubilet recalls . “ There is the big blue bowl of the sky , and the horizon expands outward to the distant volcanoes . Volcanoes and coral - father and son .”
Cold front
David and Jennifer are not exclusively warm water divers . Their home diving on the St Lawrence River has colder water than the UK , and in recent years they ’ ve devoted much of their energy to the Arctic and the Antarctic . These places represent the front line of climate change , and a photojournalist has to go to where the story is unfolding .
“ Jennifer and I have developed this saying about the Antarctic – you go for the creatures , but you stay for the ice . Ice , you see , is hypnotic ; it ’ s the final expression of water . An iceberg is also a metaphor for the ocean itself ; we are familiar with the little bit above , but the 80 per cent of it below is unknown . That ’ s how we look at the ocean .”
David and Jennifer have devoted long hours to photographing ice and icebergs - most often by snorkelling – but they are far from immune to the elements . “ Honestly , it ’ s cold as hell ,” he says . “ After about an hour you ’ re done for . So , you shoot as much as you can , and you know your productivity is not going to be great .”
For polar diving , he uses a Waterproof D10 drysuit , but cold hands are still inevitable , despite Si-Tech bayonetted dry gloves . “ If you find a beautiful ‘ bergy bit ’ with penguins on it , then that ’ s the time you stay there as long as you can , until you can ’ t stand it any longer ,” he says . “ The key factor is not your viscera [ core organs ], it ’ s not even your feet . It ’ s your hands . Once your hands get cold , that ’ s it .”
I can ’ t resist asking the world ’ s most influential underwater photographer what equipment he favours these days , and just like the last time I interviewed him ( in 2003 ) he immediately mentions his vintage Nimrod masks , which he says fit his face perfectly . Years ago , he stumbled across someone selling job lots of these masks at the US trade show DEMA , and bought a box of 24 ... for $ 7.50 . Now he ’ s down to the last two , but classic round masks are once again in production for specialist users – “ thank God for the spear-fishing community ” – so it looks like he ’ s safe for now .
Otherwise , he favours the aforementioned Waterproof drysuit and a Scubapro BC , though he eschews its integrated weight system and wears a DUI harness-style weightbelt when diving in cold water . Above all , he is inseparable from his Rolex Deep Sea Dweller . He has had a professional association with Rolex since 1994 , but has favoured the dive watch as an essential tool since buying his first Rolex in 1962 , when he was volunteering for Sandy Hook marine labs in New Jersey . For his photography , he uses Nikon cameras in Seacam housings .
The power of photography
Looking at Two Worlds ’ beautifully presented pictures , I wonder what Doubilet makes of the explosion in underwater photography heralded by the digital era . Is the world really richer for this tsunami of imagery ? “ We ’ re in a world that ’ s changed radically , and it ’ s for the best ,” he says . “ There are brilliant photographers emerging who have never taken an image on film . We ’ re seeing images we couldn ’ t have dreamed about before .”
Speaking with Doubilet , it ’ s impossible not to be inspired . He is a natural ambassador for the seas , and is passionate about the role of the diving community in conservation . “ To protect something , you need a committed population to protect it , and you need a way to protect it physically , with patrol craft ,” he says . “ It ’ s a combination of tourism and physical commitment .”
Doubilet cites the example of Sylvia Earle ’ s inspirational whale photography leading directly to the protection of the cetaceans off Hawaii , and shark images from the Bahamas leading to it becoming one of the world ’ s first shark sanctuaries . Such advances would have not passed without underwater photography to encourage the ‘ committed population ’.
“ So , yes – photographers are going around the world with boats stuffed full of costly photographic kit , but the outcome , for all the photographers in the world , is that it works ! Pictures were instrumental in making places like Ras Mohammed national parks , and the power of our photography can be channelled into protecting even more of our world .” �
TWO WORLDS : Above and Below the Sea by David Doubilet is published by Phaidon £ 39.95 phaidon . com ISBN : 9781838663186
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