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WINTER 2012
IMAGING
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S H O O T E R
kid from a blue-collar, working-class town 30 miles from
the coast, but I bought myself a Nikonos II and taught
myself the fundamentals of underwater photography. By the
time I got to college the dream was even more vibrant, so I
enrolled in a filmmaking curriculum. I wanted to be like Al
Giddings, shooting movies, or like you, shooting stills, but I
had no money to travel. So my underwater studio was the
offshore reefs and, particularly, the wrecks of New England. I
worked on dive boats, and that gave me the time to know the
environment and improve my skills.
Yet I knew if I was ever going to make a living at this
underwater photography gig I had to be able to tell great
stories that had a beginning, a middle and an end. I needed
to shoot journalistically rather than pursuing only the magic
moment. At the outset I shot only things that interested me,
but even then I began to see the degradation. The big schools
of pollock and herring I used to swim with were massively
diminished, and on dives where I once could expect to see
a dozen blue sharks, I usually saw none. I still wanted to do
celebratory coverage of the sea, but I saw there were issues
that absolutely needed light shed upon them. I wanted that
light to be my strobes.
SF//
There’s a big leap between wanting to be an
underwater journalist and actually being one. How did
you make your dream a reality?
BS//
I’d like to have been able to hang a shingle that said
“Underwater Photographer,” but I had to make a living. For
me that meant working in convenience stores and factories
to buy better cameras and strobes. For many years I spent
far more money on underwater photography than I ever
made. Early on I sold a few natural history stories here and
there and got a few stock photos placed. I made a little
money working on dive boats, but that certainly didn’t turn
on the spigot to any big income stream. Today I think there
are many outlets for underwater photography, but perhaps
less money per project than in years past, given the great
democratization and commoditization of photography on
the Internet. But some things remain the same. A successful
photographer has to have passion and fortitude, and I can’t
imagine doing anything else with my life. I figured my odds
at a billion to one to make it as an underwater journalist, but
all I could do was keep plodding along, doing what I could
afford to do in the cold, dark and challenging North Atlantic.
SF//
One of the first photographs I ever saw of yours was
an oarfish. I’ve never seen one and wouldn’t even know
they exist without your photograph. Was that a magic
moment for you?
BS//
Actually, it was quite significant for my career. It was
a great moment, but maybe not such a great photograph. I
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