The awesome wonders of Earth's true final frontier - the depths of the sea, are captured beautifully by French photographer, Bertrand Chauvel. In Bertrand's portfolio, there lies a mystery and passionate beauty within his images, which connects with the heart and the soul. Very few subject matters can capture such demading attention than that of tropical sea life, within its natural habitat. The vivid colors and sharp detail obtained by today's cameras and films within the tropical environment, work together to "strike a cord" unlike any other in the vast medium of photography.

Bertrand's experience with photography began at the age of 8, when he used to secretly dismantle the lenses from the camera in his father's Leica system. Along with this exposure to photography, there was another fascination in his life around the same time, which led him to where he is today - the fishes and corals of the Venezuelan Carribbean. These two early impressions on Bertrand's life had a very distinct influence on his career as a photographer.

Now in his adult life, Bertrand has acted upon his influences through photography and diving, to produce the incredible images seen here at Profotos. Bertrand is a certified PADI instructor, who makes dozens of dives each year in search of the beauty beneath the sea. Based in Singapore, Bertrand is just a short weekend away from the Malaysian beaches, where the majority of his underwater photography is performed.

The eye for detail and obvious experience in Bertrand's images, place his work in a class of its own. Our staff was in complete awe with the incredible beauty and natural wonder of Bertrand's underwater photographs, and we believe you will be as well. Through photography, Bertrand truly captures the grandeur of Earth's final frontier!,The awesome wonders of Earth's true final frontier - the depths of the sea, are captured beautifully by French photographer, Bertrand Chauvel. In Bertrand's portfolio, there lies a mystery and passionate beauty within his images, which connects with the heart and the soul. Very few subject matters can capture such demading attention than that of tropical sea life, within its natural habitat. The vivid colors and sharp detail obtained by today's cameras and films within the tropical environment, work together to "strike a cord" unlike any other in the vast medium of photography.

Bertrand's experience with photography began at the age of 8, when he used to secretly dismantle the lenses from the camera in his father's Leica system. Along with this exposure to photography, there was another fascination in his life around the same time, which led him to where he is today - the fishes and corals of the Venezuelan Carribbean. These two early impressions on Bertrand's life had a very distinct influence on his career as a photographer.

Now in his adult life, Bertrand has acted upon his influences through photography and diving, to produce the incredible images seen here at Profotos. Bertrand is a certified PADI instructor, who makes dozens of dives each year in search of the beauty beneath the sea. Based in Singapore, Bertrand is just a short weekend away from the Malaysian beaches, where the majority of his underwater photography is performed.

The eye for detail and obvious experience in Bertrand's images, place his work in a class of its own. Our staff was in complete awe with the incredible beauty and natural wonder of Bertrand's underwater photographs, and we believe you will be as well. Through photography, Bertrand truly captures the grandeur of Earth's final frontier!,Bertrand's addiction to photography has two major causes. At the age of 8, the weight and shine of his father's Leica system fascinated him. He used to secretly dismantle and mount back the lenses, just to check how they were inside. As far as he knows, his father never realised it. Thus his enthusiasm started rather from the pleasure of playing with cameras instead than seeking for nice images. It is only at a second stage that he discovered he was having some kind of eye for composition, so the pleasure of getting nice shots finally multiplied the excitement of playing with cameras.

The second reason that pushed Bertrand into photography are the fishes and corals he kept printed in his brain from the time he was swimming in Venezuela's Caribbean shores at the age of 9. Later, once back to France for studies and to start some kind of adult life, he kept using these images to mask the sad reality of Paris' greyish sky. During all these years in France, photography was his way to capture the fleeting of beauty, to keep it stored on a print he could watch during rainy days.

Pursuing his tendency to get into technical stuff, he concentrated on black & white to the extent of handling his own film and prints processing. Fascinated by quality, he became able to produce very sharp and bright prints he used to display in several arts exhibitions. He mainly obtained the "honourable mention" at the "Salon des Artistes Français" in Paris' Grand Palais in 1991. His style was very graphic, based on composition and structures simply "dressed" by subjects' natural texture and patterns. (http://www.visualdiving.com/bwart.html)

However, the "fish and coral" dream was still present and at the age of 26, he picked his diving certification and found himself into the Med Sea for his very first dive… with a Nikonos... despite his instructor's disagreement. Making it simple, he stuck to B&W in 3200 iso to avoid the strobe. His peers were confused with depth and pressure gauges while he was already scratching his hood with distance and aperture matters. He even managed to impress his instructor with simple dive portraits, a bit thanks to some contrast manipulation in his lab, but also by applying simple composition rules underwater.

Then came the big move: he settled in Singapore, following his IT career in a bank. His first purchase, you could guess, was a Nikonos with a decent strobe: something to start into colour photography. The Malaysian island of Tioman has the convenience of being reachable from Singapore over the weekend and offered pretty decent diving. It was a perfect training field, indeed. After just one year of Nikonos practice, he has been the first surprised to receive a few positive reactions from local magazines, to the extent of publishing a double full colour page portfolio from Tioman.

Then all went faster. After 3 years, he logged 400 dives, became a PADI instructor, visited the major spots in Southeast Asia, bought strobes, cameras, even housings. He now generally brings along two housings and four strobes during each dive. He may add a Nikonos as well if his buddy can assist. He started entertaining privileged relationship with the "Froggies Divers" in Bunaken, the magic island off Manado in North Sulawesi. The place is convenient to reach from Singapore and the operation is very prone to assist and use photographers' work. He is now their "house" photographer, returning there every 2 to 4 months.

Like he used to do during his B&W times, he managed to cover the full image processing from shooting to publishing thanks to his computer skills. He scans all his images, handles his own high quality prints, designs postcards, brochures or even advertisements for his clients. He designed and developed his "VisualDiving" website to showcase his works.

He recently published articles in favour of Bunaken's preservation, I French and Chinese news magazines.

Considering now his early B&W shots, he is convinced that there is a new aesthetic to be inspired from marine subjects. The treasures can be within arm's reach. It might be just a question of looking differently.