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the foreword to Brian Skerry’s photographic
book Ocean Soul, his longtime collaborator
Gregory Stone makes reference to what it
takes to elevate a photographer to something greater than
a mere recorder of images:
Brian is the most talented ocean journalist I
know. He gets the story right. I have had the
great pleasure and privilege of working with him
on a number of projects and several National
Geographic magazine stories where I was the writer
and he was the photographer (or, in the common
parlance of this business, the ”shooter”). While
”shooter” is clever shorthand for a photographer, it
diminishes the complexity of what he does. Months,
and sometimes years, before Brian even thinks
about picking up a camera or donning his dive
gear, he is on the phone, reading books or papers
in science journals, scoping out locations, talking
to everyone he can find, and studying every aspect
of the story’s background so that he can plan to
make a series of very specific images. Only then will
he look to the tools of his trade, what he needs to
create images that will tell you the story.… Brian
has that rare ability to make pictures that interpret
subjects in new ways — pictures that show far
more than simply where and what was happening,
also including the true nature of the moment, the
ethereal, almost spiritual, aspect of his subject.
When it comes to a subject as profound as the fragile
state of our oceans, there is a story to tell and an
immediate need to tell it to a vast audience. That is what
Skerry does so very well. Through his many articles in
National Geographic magazine, his books and his lecture
series, he has attained a reach far beyond what is possible
within the confines of dive industry publications. He
has grasped the opportunity to touch those outside the
choir of ocean acolytes with a message that celebrates
T E X T B Y S T E P H E N F R I N K
of
marine
conservation
t
h
e
A Florida manatee (Trichechus
manatus latirostris) swims in
a freshwater spring in Crystal
River, Fla. Fish aggregate
around the manatee to eat
algae growing on its body.
92-99_Shooter_Winter2012.indd 93
12/27/11