“If you look at my photos, we’re friends, we’ve played together”
Tony Wu Marine photographer
Tony Wu has probably spent more time swimming with whales than anyone else on the planet, but he’s not one to brag about it. His award-winning photos of whale behaviour are used extensively by the scientific community to illustrate their research and he’s often called by them to share his latest observations of the world’s largest creatures.
In person, Tony is a soft-spoken man, who prefers the company of whales and other sea animals to his fellow photographers. And yet, when he speaks to an audience of thousands, a classroom of school children, or a group at a dinner table, he is able to hold everyone’s gaze with almost hypnotic attention.
He’s worth getting to know, not just for the stories behind his photographs, but for a devilish sense of humour and to find out the reasons behind his fascination with whale poo…
At what point did you know that underwater photography was what you wanted to do for the rest of your life?
Well, ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved the ocean. There has never been a moment in my life when I haven’t. I don’t know why or how it happened, but it’s always been there.
Where were you raised, where was your first ocean?
I moved around a lot, so there is no one single place, but for much of my life I was near enough to oceans that I would visit. This would be with family or friends, or when I got old enough, by myself. I remember being very young, wading into the ocean and looking around and poking things. Then a crab pinches your toe and you go, ‘ouch!’ I remember thinking not that it was painful, but that this is a really cool animal! I was six or seven, but my fascination was more important than the pain.
What did your family think of your fascination with the ocean?
Being very conservative Chinese, my family basically frowned upon anything that had to do with getting dirty and being outdoors, anything physical and in the sun, or involving sand; no wind, no salt. But despite family disapproval, it was always in me – it was just there. I knew I wanted to go into the ocean, but I never had a chance until after I started working, because it takes money… I was in my early 20s before I even got the chance to dive.
I got into one of those trial scuba courses and the guy I was with, after a couple of minutes, just let me go. We came out eventually and he said, “you’re completely at home. I can’t
I spent two weeks every morning at five in the morning, going in the water and making friends with this one fish and following the entire life cycle
believe you didn’t need any help.” I didn’t really know that much at that point, but I wasn’t scared, it felt very natural. I knew, somehow, somewhere, it was going to happen.
You just needed the chance. Where was that?
That was in the Philippines, but the actual decision to make that my career, my life, didn’t happen at once. I started taking photos, first buying a camera to use on land. The first one I bought was back in 1989, a beat-up, second-hand, Nikon F2A. Do you remember those?
I do, yeah!
Workhorses. I took lots of shitty photos, because I didn’t know
what I was doing. I wasted lots of money, but I learned as a result. By the time I got my first underwater housing for a camera, around five years later, I had a Nikon F90. My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, bought me the housing for a birthday present. She saw that I was reading about them all the time; she saw the obsession, so she bought one for me. We went on our first trip together and I took 50 rolls of film underwater with me. I came back and got them developed and the photos just sucked!
How did you react?
I was absolutely convinced there was something wrong with the camera! With hindsight, I wished I had kept some of those because they were god awful, but they would be great for talks! I get obsessed about things, so I studied hard and, fortunately, the learning curve for me was quick in that two to three years later I was reasonably proficient.
What was your first break in getting your pictures published? About that time a magazine in Asia started up, called Asian Diver, and I had just moved to Singapore where they were based. I dropped off some slides there and they called me within five minutes of driving home and said, “can you come back and talk to the editor?” So, we got on really well and I started doing stuff for them. At that point, it was a hobby and English is not my first language, but I started writing for them and in the process of writing I started to improve because now I had a reason to. Again, because I get obsessed about things the learning curve was pretty quick and I got better and better, so by the year 2000 I was writing compelling articles with very compelling photos. I became a regular contributor for them and other magazines.
In those formative days, what were the sea creatures that you were obsessing about?
Being based in Singapore, I was in the epicentre of marine diversity – in that region are all the coral reefs and I started looking at all the small animals. It’s called macro diving, but there weren’t many people doing that, which was great because most of the time I’d be underwater sitting with the animal, all by myself.
One of the first animals I obsessed about were jawfish. They hold their eggs in their mouths until they hatch. I spent two weeks every morning at five in the morning, going in the water and making friends with this one fish and following the entire life cycle. It got to the point where this one fish had eggs in its mouth that were about to hatch, it knew me.
It knew you? How do you mean? In the beginning, it was a little bit nervous and ducked into its little burrow, but by the end I would show up and it wouldn’t worry about it. Then, on the day we predicted it was going to release the eggs, I wanted someone to help me to hold the focus light, because it was still dark when this was happening. So, another guy came along and as soon as he showed up the fish ducked. When he backed off the fish came out – clearly the fish could tell the difference between the two of us. I can’t explain it, I don’t want to argue with the scientists about it.
But you got the shot?
I got the shot. Now, people do it all the time but, to the best of my knowledge, there were no shots before that. Then I published a book in 2001, which won a huge award and it helped to make this type of diving popular. Within a few years, all the places where I was used to diving alone suddenly had 30 to 40 divers! That’s when I started working with whales, because people weren’t doing that at the time.
People had photographed whales before, of course, but what were you attempting that was different? I’m talking about really understanding the animals and learning about their life cycle and what makes them, them. Every type of living organism has more than one thing that makes them uniquely them. I’m not just talking about taking a photograph; anybody can do that really. I’m talking about capturing their essence.
How do you do that?
A lot of the images you see of whales, they’re actually running away. People are taking photos of whales that are clearly swimming away, because they’re feeling scared, or harassed. So, before you go, ‘wow, that’s a great picture’, think about what that shows. If you look at my photos, we’re making eye contact, we’re friends, we’ve played together; they’ve chosen to associate with me, or they’re in the middle of this very important social activity, and they’ve allowed me to come in and be among them – because I’m not annoying them. There’s the difference.
It’s about immersion and being immersive.
People are taking photos of whales that are clearly swimming away, because they’re feeling scared