We can't forget about the ocean and its treasures.
It's vibrant in its wide, diverse rainbow of life, from colorful corals that teem with emerald parrotfish, blue tangs, and black-and-yellow-striped sergeant majors to solitary whale sharks, toothy moray eels, and playful sea lions. Christian Vizl captures these and many more denizens of the seas in this new book that showcases the ocean's life.
That we can, and should, revel in his photography should also remind us that the oceans are ailing, polluted with plastics and struggling with ocean acidification and warming. Nearly a quarter of the National Park System, places such as Dry Tortugas National Park, Virgin Islands National Park, Cape Cod National Seashore, Padre Island National Seashore, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and so many other treasured spots in the system, are touched, even surrounded, by marine waters. And in those waters reside the life forms that Vizl turned his cameras on.
This 220-page-plus large format book arriving next month is surprising, not only with the sea creatures Vizl portrays but also due to the fact that this is a black-and-white collection, not full of color. Dr. Sylvia Earle, the famed oceanographer, writes in her introduction to the book that:
Life in the sea is famously rich with color, even at nighttime and in the deep sea, where lights are required to illuminate brilliant red shrimp and fish, purple urchins, iridescent jellies, and bright orange sponges, crabs, and corals. But in this volumne, Vizl insists that we focus on form, texture, and rhythm so we can see details lost in the sea's usual riot of color.
This approach to capturing Earth's wildlife takes me back to my youth midway through the last century, when black-and-white photography was the dominant illustrative approach due to its less expense to publish. But as Vizl craftfully displays, it's not a lesser format. There are graceful jellyfish, male sea lions kissing female sea lions, manta rays gliding in formation above the seafloor, and all species of sharks. Some images have had their ocean backgrounds erased, leaving sharks and surrounding fishes floating against a white backdrop, making it even easier to see the sharp lines of their physiques. Others overwhelm with life.
Occasionally breaking up this exploration, and celebration, of sealife are essays by Michael Law, Ernie Brooks, David Doubilet, and Nora Torres that remind us of the threats facing the oceans and their life (as well as of the beauty of black-and-white photography).
Pictures have power. They have the power to celebrate, educate, honor, and humiliate. They have the power to convince the unconvinced, and most important of all, they have the power to make people fall in love with and protect this planet and its seas. Christian's imagery is powerful because it captures the rhythm of our oceans during one of the greatest periods of marine change in Earth's history. -- David Doubilet
This is a book to remind us of what wonderful life we have to lose.
