>> Ace Wu

Blackwater is the frontier of underwater photography. This form of diving gives divers access to an unfamiliar underwater world at night. For me, the ultimate goal of blackwater photography is to discover new marine species and capture rarely-seen perspectives of these alien creatures. The four key elements of blackwater photography are: perfecting buoyancy, finding a dependable dive operator, using reliable equipment and powerful lights, and having a lot of patience!

Since most of the blackwater organisms are larvae, most are transparent and some organisms don’t even have all their organs where you’d expect them to be, like the halibut larva, whose stomach lies outside its body! Such bizarre sights, when captured well by blackwater photographers, are what fascinate the viewer. It is my hope that people will better appreciate the strange and beautiful underwater world through my images.