SEA ART 

Brian Skerry is a photojournalist who specializes in marine wildlife and in underwater environments. This artist fits into our gallery because his work focuses on the ocean. More specifically, ocean photography.

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He was born on December 27 in the year 1961, so he is 58 years of age. The place he was born was in Milford, Massachusetts. Although he was born there, he grew up in a different area which was Uxbridge. Uxbridge is a small, working class town. All he ever dreamt of when he was little was exploring the oceans. He always wanted to become a National Geographic photographer. Forwarding to the year of 1984, Brian Skerry graduated from Worcester State College with a Bachelor of Arts in media and communications. In his early photographing experience, his focus was on shipwrecks and  of course, marine life. Throughout the years 1982 to 1992, he worked without getting paid. His job was to be on a diving chapter boat in Rhode Island. He would take divers to explore shipwrecks in New England. From here, Brian Skerry published photos and wrote stories for many magazines for Scuba Diving.

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Additionally, Brian Skerry eventually gained his first assignment for National Geographic Magazine. He made a total publishing of 23 stories. He made a contribution to an additional 4 stories. Some of the main focuses on his stories were particularly on harp seals, squids, right whales, leatherback sea turtles, bluefin tuna, dolphins, and coral reefs. Some of the locations he has visited to take great photography has been: Southern Line Islands, Ireland, New Zealand marine reserves, Phoenix Islands, Japan, and the Mesoamerican Reef. While working on each assignment for the National Geographic, Skerry had the fortunate opportunity to photograph President Barack Obama snorkeling in the waters of Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. In the year of 2012, Brian partnered with Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. They create The New England Ocean Odyssey, also known as the NEOO. Their mission was to have their stories be shared to the public about marine wildlife and ecosystems with the ongoing production of still photography work along with video. To add on, Brian Skerry also has gave lectures to audiences on issues of ocean conservation, exploration, and photography. Stages he has lectured on have been TEDTalks in Davos, Switzerland, National Press Club in Washington D.C., The Royal Geographical Society in London, and the Sydney Opera House located in Australia. Also, Skerry has made guest appearances on many tv shows such as NBC’s TODAY, CBS’s “This Morning”. Additionally, he’s been a guest on several radio shows and podcasts. Brian Skerry currently holds the title of a 10- time award winner in Wildlife Photographer of the year competition in London. He also won awards from Pictures of the Year International, Nature’s Best, Communication Arts. In 2012, Brain won the Peter Benchley Award for Excellence in Media.

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For the first image, it is a Yellow Gobi that Skerry captured while diving at a depth of 100 feet. The Yellow Gobi is in an abandoned soda can on the volcanic sandy bottom of Suruga Bay, off the coast of Japan. For the second photograph, a Gray Seal is shown in the Gulf of Maine. Brian Skerry titled it, "Ain't Misbehaving". He was diving off Acadia National Park in Maine and spent 5 hours in the water the day he made this picture. He named it this because in the beginning they were shy to come near him, but then built up courage to go in front of him, then swim away just like this picture he captured. For the third picture, he captured underwater view of a wave breaking on Kingman Reef in the Pacific Ocean. While he was on this assignment, he felt it uncommon to feel the stress of finding scenes that make for great pictures and learned to shake off negative emotions, and see the simplicity of wonderful scenes inevitability present. The fourth picture shown is a Great Hammerhead about 14 feet in length. Brian captured this image on the very last evening after 18 days at sea. The fifth picture he made is called "Can you 'Think Like A Dolphin'", which was the cover picture on the May issue of National Geographic where he explores intelligent animals like this dolphin and how they view the world acoustically. Lastly, the sixth picture Brian Skerry made was of this Green Sea Turtle swimming among a school Surgeonfish in the Southern Line Islands, located in the Central Pacific. Brian Skerry explores the idea of ocean conservation. He states that every animal plays a vital role in the health of an ecosystem and when individual species are removed, the entire environment breaks down. A health ocean is needed for a vibrant planet.