Marine biologist and photographer Laurent Ballesta has dedicated his life to exploring the oceans and revealing their wonder through art.
He’s led a series of major expeditions, each one involving scientific mysteries and diving challenges and all resulting in unprecedented images. For his most recent project, Laurent centred in on an ancient species. The tri-spine horseshoe crab has survived for more than 100 million years but is now threatened by habitat destruction and overfishing. The species is killed not only for its meat but also for its blood, which is used in the development of vaccines. But, in the protected waters of Pangatalan Island, there’s hope for this species.
France
Laurent has authored 13 photography books on underwater wildlife. As co-founder of Andromède Océanologie, he’s been leading major expeditions for 10 years. He illustrates the underwater world as both a naturalist and an artist, whether that be capturing the first images of a coelacanth taken by a diver at a depth of 120 metres, documenting 700 sharks off Fakarava hunting at night or photographing the deepest and longest dive in Antarctica.
