“But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret lore of ocean.” – H.P. Lovecraft
“Blue, green, gray, white or black; smooth, ruffled, or mountainous; that ocean is not silent. All my days have I watched it and listened to it, and I know it well. At first it told to me only the plain little tales of calm beaches and near ports, but with the years it grew more friendly and spoke of other things; of things more strange and more distant in space and time. Sometimes at twilight the gray vapors of the horizon have parted to grant me glimpses of the ways beyond; and sometimes at night the deep waters of the sea have grown clear and phosphorescent, to grant me glimpses of the ways beneath. And these glimpses have been as often of the ways that were and the ways that might be, as of the ways that are; for ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time.” – H.P. Lovecraft, The White Ship.
If you have ever been diving in the ocean, or even just the sea, you may have already experienced the simple, yet terrifying feeling of never-ending vastness. You may have felt the overwhelming weight of huge volumes of water both pushing and pulling your body to places and depths unknown; your flippers only giving you a slight advantage over the temporarily smooth current. Both ocean and sea seem to play with you, one preferring the game of tug of war, while the other: hide-n-seek. The colors blind you in every possible way from utter darkness to glittering light that tricks your eyes into believing something is moving around you. Unless in a submarine, or packed into heavy suits that threaten to keep you submerged long after your wish for resurfacing becomes an incessant thought, humans will remain ignorant of the wonders of the depths selfishly guarded by these large bodies of water. Whales, however, know no such boundaries.
Meet Jem Cresswell, an Austrialian self-taught photographer, whose passion for underwater photography and humpback whales lead him on an extraordinary 3-year long quest to capture the perfect shot(s):
“In 2014, I set out to spend time with humpback whales during their annual migration to the breeding grounds of Tonga. I was initially drawn to the whales’ gentle nature, sheer size and the feeling of insignificance in their presence. Over the past 3 years returning to Tonga, I have sought to capture intimate portraits of these complex and conscious animals, bringing the viewer into the world of these mystical giants.
People may not be aware – but in 2006, the discovery of spindle cells, previously known only to be in humans and great apes; were found to exist in the brains of humpback whales. These cells, linked to social organisation, empathy, intuition and rapid gut reactions were found to the amount of almost three times than which is present in humans.”
“The main focus of the project concerns the whale’s sense of character and consciousness. To me, black and white avoids distraction and draws the viewer directly to the subject. Black and white also has a sense of timelessness to it, which I feel represents how long these creatures have been around for.” (qtd from his interview with Colossal, which can be read in full here)
If timelessness and focus were what the author of these works intended, then personally I think he has certainly achieved them. The expression in the whales’ piercing human-like eyes, the grace and ease with which they move captured with seemingly little effort, and the remarkable sense of ancientness and grandeur – all of these details speak to me in each of his works. The black and white spectrum only adds another layer of dust to the already boundless and atavistic surroundings and Cresswell’s portrait targets.
When I first saw Cresswell’s series “Giants,” the scene with the flying whales from Disney’s Fantasia 2000 immediately came to mind. With its fitting melody and both simple and grand imagery, it never seizes to capture my attention and sometimes tears. Cresswell’s works only intensify these feelings by adding layers I never thought about as a child.
The first of the two of my favorites of his series is one where you can see a whale with its young just below the surface of the water, gliding together through a light-filled environment. The choice to position the shot iso that it encompasses both the submerged and surface worlds allows us to see what lies just beneath the veil, and seems to say: There is a whole other world down here, with its own lifeforms and families, this is just the beginning.
The second work is of a whale suspended in complete darkness with the illuminated profile of his head and parts of his body facing the viewer. The anthropomorphism is strong in this photograph. The single eye looking directly at us from the huge detailed body of a humpback whale is nothing short of human. Full of curiosity and thoughtfulness, but also wariness, this eye focuses the portrait, as well as its intended message.
“To be a whale, she thought. To float like this all the time, to be weightless, like an astronaught. But space is green, and wet, and warm, and there are voices in it, and things growing. Freedom: no walls, no doors. And the songs in the water…” – Diane Duane, Deep Wizardry.
Another photographer that I would like to introduce briefly is Anuar Patjane, a Mexican photographer and anthropologist.
“Anuar Patjane captures black and white moments of life underwater as a way to bring awareness to a part of the world most do not get a chance to see. Patjane searches for awe-inspiring snapshots to connect viewers with images of fish and other underwater animals. He hopes his photographs create an empathy towards these creatures and their environment while also expressing the impact that our choices have on their trajectory as species of the sea.” (qtd from his interview with Colossal which can be found in full here)
Similar to Cresswell, Patjane’s series “Underwater Realm,” hopes to show people of the world what can be lost if we are not careful. However, Patjane does not focus only on whales, as can be seen below, his series encompasses all kinds of underwater life, as well as their environments.
Differing from Cresswell, Patjane often includes in his photographs the humans taking the pictures, or that are just swimming along. This kind of choice in composition shifts the focus (for me) from being simply these amazing creatures in their natural environment that seems so fantastical and alien to us, to the collision of two similar, yet different worlds. The curiosity is even more palpable from the creatures within these works, and the presence of the human subjects seems almost intrusive at this stage, calling to mind an excerpt from Ambrose Bierce’s The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary: “Ocean, n. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man — who has no gills.”
Cresswell’s and Patjane’s styles of photography take different paths towards a single goal, but, in the end, both hope to achieve an understanding between humans and the various lifeforms hidden below the deep dark blue.
-L.L.L.
Check out more works by Jem Cresswell and Anuar Patjane by clicking here and here.
The Junction Journal 