Ocean Wild: The Underwater Photography of Brian Skerry

Blue Shark and Parasite © Brian Skerry

Ocean Wild features the exciting work of National Geographic Magazine photographer Brian Skerry, whose images have become synonymous with underwater awareness. Skerry's uniquely creative photographs provide rare glimpses of ecosystems ranging from tropical coral reefs to the world beneath arctic ice, as well as portraits of a wide variety of ocean wildlife, including whales, sharks, squid, seals, tuna and billfish.

Skerry is known for the elegant and informed way with which he turns the spotlight onto some of the most serious and pressing issues facing our oceans. His impressive body of work includes nine published stories in National Geographic Magazine and he is currently working on four new ocean stories for the magazine, with two scheduled for publication during 2008.

"It is an exciting time for undersea exploration," says Skerry. "But the world's oceans are also facing serious threats that I'm not sure are understood by most people. My hope is to continually find new ways of creating images and stories that both celebrate the sea yet also highlight environmental problems. Photography can be a powerful instrument for change."

While on assignment Skerry has lived on the bottom of the sea, spent months aboard fishing boats and traveled in everything from snowmobiles to canoes to helicopters to get the picture. He spends months at a time in the field and in the course of any given year frequently finds himself in environments of extreme contrast from remote coral reefs to diving beneath polar ice.

An award-winning photographer, Skerry's work has been featured not only in National Geographic Magazine, but also in magazines such as People, Sports Illustrated, US News and World Report, National Wildlife, Smithsonian, Esquire, Maxim and Audubon, as well as in countless other publications around the world.