FERN WOOD MITCHELL

About Underwater Photography & Me

Welcome to my web site, and to my personal vision of the world of undersea life. For me, the ocean is a place of wonder. It is at once peaceful and exciting, serene and chaotic. I have been diving for more than 20 years, and no matter how many dives I make … in the South Pacific, the Caribbean, the Red Sea, the Galapagos … I am constantly amazed at how welcoming and accepting the inhabitants of the undersea world are.

I have swum amidst hundreds of chevron barracudas, the elegant silvery fish parting from their tight formation just enough to let me slip into the school and become lost in it. I’ve had the privilege of being used as a scratching post by a magnificent 30-foot Whale Shark. I have been caressed on the cheek by an inquisitive cuttlefish as he flashed different patterns and colors in his skin: red, brown, white, stripes, dots. I will never truly know what his purpose was, but the communication seemed clear: Welcome to my world. As long as you respect me and my environment, you may spend time here.

I’ve received that same message again and again underwater, and am deeply grateful for the reminder. We land-based animals might do well to listen and follow suit.

In my professional life, I have been a painter, specializing in patterns for printed fabrics, carpets, wallpaper, bed linens and towels. I was known—branded, if you will—as a specialist in traditional design, very tightly drawn, with subdued colors. No matter how I tried, I could never break the mold and paint as I longed to: broad, splashy strokes of color, free and exuberant, in bold, bright palettes. Imagine the thrill when I first saw just what I longed to paint, on the skin of a Giant Tridacna clam! On one of my first dives in the Solomon Islands, I came across this beauty dressed in glistening copper, overlaid with patterns in teal green and marine blue, flecked throughout with glistening gold. I was staggered; nature was showing me the perfect expression of what I had always wanted to create.

That experience opened my eyes to a way of seeing. I learned to focus my vision very differently, underwater and above, and look with greater clarity at the patterns and colors of even the smallest sea creatures. Photography would be my new medium, the camera my paintbrush.

As a wealth of images opened up to me, I came to feel privileged. Who was I, to experience the sights, colors, and patterns of these exotic creatures whose existence most people never discover—much less see in person?

My wish is that my undersea photography brings more awareness of the beauty and life that exists in the oceans of our planet. The oceans are the largest part of its surface, but like many natural wonders, they are in jeopardy now as perhaps never before.

I hope you find beauty in the images presented to me by nature.