Paul Sutherland

After a decade of making pictures underwater, it seems only natural that the strongest memory I have of my formative years is one of a massive school, perhaps tens of thousands, of yellowfin tuna feeding on an even larger school, hundreds of thousands of baitfish under a pier in then isolated Jeddha, Saudi Arabia. I was four or five at the time and had just learned to snorkel. That day I sat on a wooden ladder at the end of a pier, my mother had her fist full of my t-shirt my head was bent down in the water, mask and snorkel on straining at her grasp. The world of air and sky above, inches away, did not exist. I belonged for that short period of time to the Red Sea and the tuna.

That feeling remains.

Every time I get in the water, at work on a project the rest of the world ceases to exist, the subject at hand, the focus of my attention. Doing what you love cannot be called work. It can be demanding, tiring, cold, most always wet, but never work. It is just too much fun. Shooting editorial and stock material all over the world gives me the chance to feel a sense of belonging and impending opportunity every time I near the water. It may take a minute or two, but once I start working, the terrestrial world goes away. I can't imagine a day passing without thinking about the world's oceans, the earth's lungs, and the creatures within. It is this awe of and fascination with the oceans, which allow me to be so comfortable and well suited to photography in the marine environment.

Born in 1959, my childhood and teenage years were spent in the Middle East, my father a Foreign Service officer. I returned to the US for college, only to return to the Mideast immediately thereafter to work in the oil fields. Those years gave me a life education and a work ethic. When first hired, the bet was I wouldn't last six weeks - I loved the work for six years. That determination to succeed remains.

First certified to dive in 1974 with over 2500 dives later - it still isn't work!

Recent clients include:
Aqua
Audubon Institute
California Wild
Johnnie Walker Scotch
Merlin Industries
Monterey Bay Aquarium
National Geographic (Netherlands)
National Geographic Traveler
Nature Australia Magazine
New England BioLabs
New York Aquarium
Nikon
Science et Vie Junior Magazine
Scientific American
Smithsonian Magazine
Sport Diver
Superinteressante
The Liposome Company
The Victoria Museum