One Photographer’s Quest to Redefine the Shark

I expected to meet a dreaded “man-eater,” but when I saw it, I realized that it was a defenseless animal, more afraid of me than I was of it. That moment aroused my curiosity, and I decided to learn more about sharks. I travelled to the island of Guadalupe off the Pacific coast of Mexico to see great white sharks, and I took a small point-and-shoot camera with me. When I managed to photograph a great white shark, I realized that the camera was more than a tool, it was a means to reach my goal of meeting sharks. The movies have reduced sharks to one or two descriptions for many people: They are terrifying and insatiable. What do you learn from being with them and why do you defend them? From a very young age I dreamed of being a diver because my parents were divers. While my mother died when I was only one year old, my dad used to tell about me his adventures with sharks. He said they were bad. When I was seven I saw the movie Jaws, and I was drawn to the character Matt Hooper, the sc ... Read full article.