Bryan Skerry's jaw-dropping photographs of whales underwater

Date
18 July 2014

You don’t get much better than an award-winning National Geographic photographer, unless of course it’s one that spends most of his time underwater snapping away at enormous whales. Parts of this series make me want to cry, others make me want to jump for joy at the wonders of nature, but mostly they make me want to shit my pants with terror. Imagine being underwater, where man is not supposed to dwell, and being in the company of a prehistoric beast with a mouth as big as a 4×4, imagine how scared you’d be. One flip of its tail could probably shatter your legs. Anyway, the point here really is that one-time Photographer of the Year Brian Skerry is not only excellent at being brave in the presence of beasts, he’s also a superb photographer with composition skills and a knack of capturing wildlife with a flair that evokes raw emotion in you. Don’’t forget to check out his sharks series. If you dare.

Above

Brian Skerry: Southern Right Whale floats inches off the sea floor in the Auckland Islands

Above

Brian Skerry: Southern Right Whale and diver swim over sea floor

Above

Brian Skerry: Close encounter with Southern Right Whale

Above

Brian Skerry: Southern Right Whale rubs on the sandy sea floor

Above

Brian Skerry: Southern Right Whale and diver – Auckland Islands, NZ

Above

Brian Skerry: North Atlantic Right Whale mother and calf

Above

Brian Skerry: Aerial view of breaching Right Whale calf – Florida

Share Article

About the Author

Liv Siddall

Liv joined It’s Nice That as an intern in 2011 and worked across online, print and events, and was latterly Features Editor before leaving in May 2015.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.