Lighting the way

HEART OF DARKNESS

IN THIS IMAGE caving photographer Alan Pryke is at the lowest point of Mammoth Cave; beside him is cave diver Deborah Johnston, preparing to disappear into the unknown.

Shooting while caving is a special challenge, Alan says. “We have to drag packs and lower equipment on ropes through hundreds of metres of pits, ladders, crawls and squeezes. All camera gear is packed in padded, watertight boxes.” He’d been to this location before, which made logistics more manageable; nevertheless, “you get an incredible sense of isolation when pushing this deep into a system”, he adds.

There are also numerous technical problems: fogged-up lenses, grit and dust in the air that won’t settle, and flashguns that fail to fire. But the biggest challenge in cave photography is the organisation of light. “Making candid photos under these extreme conditions requires a good knowledge of lighting, and trust in lighting assistants,” Alan says.