Laurent Ballesta

Aliases: None known
Role: underwater photographer, marine biologist, deep diving pioneer, explorer, filmmaker
Nationality: French
First appearance: 2004 (^[1])
Affiliation: Andromede Oceanologie (founder); National Geographic (photographer); Blancpain (sponsor)

Biography

Laurent Ballesta is a French underwater photographer, marine biologist, and deep diving explorer widely regarded as one of the most important figures in underwater imaging. Henley Spiers described him as “the closest thing we have today to an heir to Jacques Cousteau” (^[2]). Alex Mustard called him “clearly number 1” among underwater photographers after reviewing his work at the 2005 Antibes Festival (^[3]).

Early life and education

Ballesta grew up in Montpellier, France. His parents were not divers — they did not even know how to swim and were “scared by the sea.” Despite their fears, young Laurent spent his time at the beach with mask and snorkel, captivated by the underwater world. He recalls it took him years to work up the courage to round a jetty from one-meter depth to the four-meter “abyss” on the other side. At the time, French regulations prohibited diving before age 14, but Ballesta pushed his parents until they found a way for him to start at 13 (^[4]).

Growing up watching Jacques Cousteau’s television programs, Ballesta was inspired to become a marine biologist — the person Cousteau always turned to for answers. He studied marine biology at university in Montpellier. He later reflected that the Cousteau team were really “all travelers, and artists, and writers, more than scientists,” and that by choosing the scientific path he had temporarily suppressed his own artistic nature (^[5]).

Photography origins

Ballesta came to photography after a transformative encounter with a school of basking sharks near Montpellier — the smallest was about six meters long, ten of them swimming around him. He spent an entire winter day in the water with them and had a fever all night afterward “not because of a cold, just because of emotion.” When he tried to tell people about the experience, no one believed him. “Nobody believed me! And it became obvious that I had to make photos.” He was entirely self-taught, shooting on film with no digital feedback. “Imagine, you take a picture, you don’t know what you do, you have to wait one week, and you forgot what your settings were” (^[6]).

He shot extensively with the Nikonos RS camera system — Alex Mustard noted he owned seven Nikonos RS bodies and regularly used the 13mm lens. All his early work, including the acclaimed Planete Mers book, was shot on film (likely Provia or Velvia), though he did post-process scanned images in Photoshop when needed (^[7], ^[8]).

Andromede Oceanologie

At the end of university, Ballesta and his closest friend founded Andromede Oceanologie as a small association — “just the two of us, no business program was planned.” They did not want to become desk-bound researchers who dove “once a month or once a year,” nor simple dive guides. They wanted to combine scientific work, diving, and photography (^[9]).

Nicolas Hulot and television

Early in his career, Ballesta met Nicolas Hulot, the famous French television presenter, who trusted him and brought him onto his program Ushuaia Nature for 12 years. The role was typically two to three months per year, serving as marine biology consultant — preparing programs, doing reconnaissance trips, spotting underwater scenes for the film crew, and appearing on screen as the scientific expert. This gave Ballesta opportunities to travel the world and learn expedition filmmaking. “That was a huge opportunity for me to meet him, to spend time with such a smart guy. To learn about how to do an expedition, filming… I met so many incredible people around him” (^[10]). His first trip to Antarctica came as a reconnaissance tour for Hulot’s program.

Contributions

Planete Mers (2005)

Ballesta’s first major book, Planete Mers (co-authored with Pierre Descamp), was a 400-page large-format coffee table book featuring images from around the world — polar regions (Arctic and Antarctic), temperate waters (Northern Europe, freshwater, the Americas), and tropical locations (Jordan, PNG, French Polynesia). The book won the Prix Mondial Du Livre D’Image Sous-Marine (World Prize for Underwater Photo Book) at the Antibes Festival in 2005 (^[11]).

Alex Mustard’s review in UwP Magazine stated: “To put it simply, I think he is currently the world’s best underwater photographer… Laurent is a master of balanced light photography, mixing high impact foreground marine life with beautiful depth-giving backgrounds that immediately transport you beneath the waves.” Mustard compared the book favorably to Newbert’s Within A Rainbowed Sea and Doubilet’s Water Light Time — the two previous high-water marks in underwater photography books (^[12], ^[13]).

Coelacanth expeditions (Gombessa I)

Ballesta’s coelacanth project brought him international recognition. Coelacanths — “living fossils” believed extinct for over 60 million years until a specimen was found off South Africa — had never been successfully photographed alive by a diver. Several previous divers had died attempting to reach the caves where coelacanths shelter at 105-115 meters depth in Sodwana Bay, South Africa (^[14]).

In early 2010, Ballesta led a team of four rebreather divers to Sodwana Bay, working with operator Peter Timm of Triton Lodge. Over four weeks of diving to 100-120 meters almost every day (4-5 hours per dive including decompression), they saw coelacanths only six times, each encounter lasting 25-35 minutes. The dives involved extreme current — GPS tracking showed they drifted more than 8 kilometers during decompression on some dives. They had only 12 minutes of bottom time to check ten caves across a 300-meter stretch of canyon at 110-130 meters depth (^[15], ^[16]).

Ballesta described the coelacanth dives as “the most stressful” of all his expeditions. Finding a coelacanth in the last minute of a dive meant staying an extra 15-20 minutes at depth, resulting in five hours of decompression. Two of his four-person team subsequently stopped deep diving — his dive director Jean-Marc Bellin twice cut his rebreather loop during dives due to stress, taking his bail-out gas even though “nothing was wrong except for himself and his mind.” But the photography itself was straightforward: “You’re the first, so it’s easy. The coelacanth is not moving. It’s not curious, but it’s not scared” (^[17]).

The footage was featured on the French television program Ushuaia Nature and promoted to the Wetpixel front page by Eric Cheng, who called it “Incredible!” (^[18], ^[19]).

Antarctic deep diving (Gombessa III)

Ballesta completed the deepest dives ever under Antarctic ice, working out of the French Dumont d’Urville scientific base in East Antarctica. The deepest dive reached 230 feet (70 meters) at temperatures below 29 degrees Fahrenheit, with dives lasting up to five hours. It took seven months for his nerves to recover from the trauma. He described the experience: “The waters under Antarctic ice are like Mount Everest: magical, but so hostile that you have to be sure of your desire before you go” (^[20]).

His Antarctic work produced extraordinary imagery, including a 147-image stitched panorama of an iceberg underwater — the first time the submerged portion of an iceberg had been shown in full. He spent three days installing a grid of lines from the seabed to buoys to maintain precise distances, working in virtually freezing water. “None of us could see the whole thing under water. Close-to, it was overflowing from our view. From a distance, it disappeared into the fog” (^[21]).

He also documented Weddell seals under the ice, capturing a mother introducing her pup to the water in early spring. “They looked so at ease, where I felt so inappropriate,” he said of the encounter. Equipment used included a Nikon D4S with a Seacam housing (^[22]).

Fakarava shark aggregation (Gombessa IV)

Ballesta led the Gombessa IV expedition to Fakarava, French Polynesia, documenting the annual mating aggregation of camouflage grouper (Epinephelus polyphekadion) and the predatory behavior of hundreds of grey reef sharks (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) in the atoll’s narrow southern pass. The expedition resulted in a scientific paper on the “inverted trophic pyramid” present at Fakarava, published in the journal Current Biology in July 2016 (^[23]).

The Fakarava work, which spanned five years of return visits diving day and night around the full moon in July when up to 20,000 grouper gather to spawn, became some of Ballesta’s most celebrated imagery. At the 2016 ADEX show in Singapore, he presented a film featuring “some of the most intense shark and grouper action” attendees had seen. He made the observation that “the creatures he was seeking were not rare, but the environment that they exist in is seldom visited” (^[24], ^[25]). Night diving with hunting sharks in Fakarava was later described as having been “made famous by Laurent Ballesta’s documentaries” (^[26]).

Saturation diving innovation (Gombessa V)

Ballesta’s most ambitious project combined saturation diving with rebreather technology — an idea he first conceived in 1999 when he got his first rebreather. The concept: divers would descend in a pressurized bell, exit with rebreathers for hours of free exploration at depth, return to the bell, and live in a pressurized chamber on the surface between dives. Decompression would only happen once, at the end of the expedition (^[27]).

Around 2000, thanks to Nicolas Hulot, Ballesta met Henri Germain Delauze, the founder of COMEX (the French commercial diving company that held the record for the deepest human dive at 700 meters). Delauze responded to the young, unknown Ballesta’s pitch with: “Ton projet ne m’interesse pas, mais il me plait” (“Your project doesn’t interest me, but I like it”) — and immediately began making plans, offering COMEX services at cost price of 15,000 euros per day. The price was far beyond Ballesta’s means at the time, but the enthusiasm was encouraging (^[28]).

After reaching 200 meters with over six hours in the water by 2007-2008, Ballesta returned to COMEX, but Delauze had suffered a brain injury and was no longer receiving visitors. His successors were dismissive: “Why do you want to go deep? Nobody goes… The deeper you go, the less there is to watch.” The cost had also risen to 200,000 euros per day. It took nearly two more decades for Ballesta to find alternative solutions and funding. The planned expedition would have divers living at saturation depth (60-120 meters in the Mediterranean) for weeks, with the possibility of treating 100 meters as a “new surface” from which to explore even deeper (^[29]).

Deep diving records

Ballesta is a pioneering deep diver. In 2008, he shot what was reported as the deepest SCUBA underwater photograph at 192 meters depth in Nice, France. By 2007-2008, he had reached depths exceeding 200 meters with more than six hours in the water using rebreathers (^[30], ^[31]).

Note: The 192-meter record claim originates from a forum user’s post rather than an authoritative editorial source.

Awards and recognition

Antibes Festival

Ballesta was a dominant force at the Antibes Festival, winning the Slide Portfolio category multiple times. In 2004, he won the Palme d’Or for Slide Portfolio for the third time in five years, with Alex Mustard noting his “awesome behavioural image of a mantis shrimp attempting to spear a fish” and commenting “looking at his images it is hard to think of anyone who is taking better ones at the moment” (^[32]). His Planete Mers book won the best book prize in 2005 (^[33]).

His “reign” in the Antibes slide portfolios was eventually ended by Thomas Peschak in 2007, which Alex Mustard called a “fantastic achievement — especially beating Laurent” (^[34]). Alex Mustard’s own Reefs Revealed book win at Antibes placed him “alongside the likes of Doubilet, Newbert, Amsler, Wu and Ballesta” (^[35]).

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

• 2017: Won the Earth’s Environments category with “The Ice Monster,” his 147-image stitched panorama of an iceberg in Antarctica (Nikon D4S, 13mm lens, Seacam housing). Also a finalist in Behaviour: Mammals with “Swim gym,” an image of Weddell seals under Antarctic ice (^[36], ^[37]).
• 2017: His Antarctic seal study was among the preview images highlighted before the ceremony (^[38]).
• 2017: Featured as one of three underwater photographers (alongside Tony Wu and Michel Roggo) sharing their process in a Natural History Museum feature (^[39]).
• 2020: His image was used to illustrate the WPY 2021 call for entries (^[40]).
• 2021: Won both the Underwater category and the overall Wildlife Photographer of the Year Grand Title with “Creation” — an image of camouflage groupers spawning at Fakarava, French Polynesia, taken during five years of return expeditions. Shot with Nikon D5, 17-35mm lens, Seacam housing and strobes (^[41], ^[42]).
• 2022: Won the Portfolio category at WPOTY 2022 (^[43]).

National Geographic

Selected as one of National Geographic’s Best Animal Photos of 2017, alongside Brian Skerry, David Doubilet, Jennifer Hayes, and Thomas Peschak (^[44]).

Equipment

Ballesta’s equipment choices evolved over his career:

• Film era: Seven Nikonos RS camera bodies with 13mm lens; Provia or Velvia film (^[45], ^[46])
• Digital era: Nikon D4S and Nikon D5 with Seacam housings (^[47], ^[48])
• Diving: Revo rebreather (bright yellow), signature red wetsuit sponsored by Blancpain (^[49])

Judging and speaking

• 2016: Speaker at ADEX 2016 in Singapore, presenting alongside Alex Mustard, Kurt Amsler, and others (^[50])
• 2018: Judge at the Anilao Underwater Shootout, alongside Ellen Cuylaerts, Indra Swari, John Thet, and William Tan. Gave a “fantastic talk about his expeditions” at the opening ceremony that held a large audience of underwater photographers in “hushed awe” and “completely engaged and silent” (^[51], ^[52])

Blancpain partnership

Swiss watchmaker Blancpain has been a major sponsor of Ballesta’s work through their Ocean Commitment program. In 2014, Blancpain launched their Ocean Commitment website celebrating ocean exploration, explicitly highlighting their support for “Laurent Ballesta’s Project Gombessa” alongside National Geographic’s Pristine Seas Expeditions (^[53]). The Gombessa IV Genesis film was produced and published in partnership with Blancpain (^[54]).

Philosophy

Ballesta’s approach to underwater photography is driven by exploration rather than technical mastery. He has said: “Try to feel as an explorer and don’t lie to yourself. Find the condition to be an explorer, and that will be good. For me, that is the key for inspiration.” He has no interest in photographing subjects at busy dive sites: “If you put me in a place where I see ten other photographers, and I have to wait my turn to take pictures of the pygmy seahorse, I have no inspiration at all.” Instead, he needs “to feel the kid I was, full of fears, full of strong feelings like that, and if I succeed to have this feeling again, I know that I’m going to make good photos” (^[55]).

On diving equipment, despite being one of the world’s most accomplished technical divers, he is pragmatic rather than passionate: “I’m not this kind of technical diver who enjoys so much his equipment and spends time on forums to talk about the use of the D ring. I really don’t care about my equipment, I hate my equipment, it’s so heavy, so big. But I must use all the techniques I can if I want to go to 200 meters” (^[56]).

Community reception

On Wetpixel, Ballesta was consistently cited as one of the world’s top underwater photographers. In the “Your favourite photographers” and “Share your favorite photographers” forum threads, multiple community members named him alongside David Doubilet, Paul Nicklen, and Ernest Brooks II (^[57], ^[58]). Alex Mustard’s reaction to the Planete Mers book at Antibes 2005 was visceral: “it made me feel sick. The photography is so so good” (^[59]).

Timeline

• 2004-11: Won the Slide Portfolio (Palme d’Or) at Antibes Festival 2004 for the third time in five years, praised by Alex Mustard as taking the best images “at the moment” (^[60])
• 2005-10: Met Alex Mustard at Antibes Festival 2005; Mustard declared him “clearly number 1” among underwater photographers (^[61])
• 2005-11: Planete Mers book published (400 pages, co-authored with Pierre Descamp); won Antibes best book prize. Generated extensive Wetpixel community discussion (^[62])
• 2007-10: His “reign” in Antibes slide portfolios ended by Thomas Peschak (^[63])
• 2008: Shot the deepest SCUBA underwater photograph at 192 meters in Nice, France (^[64])
• ~2010: Photographed and filmed live coelacanths at 105-115m in Sodwana Bay, South Africa, leading a four-person rebreather team over four weeks of daily deep dives. Eric Cheng promoted footage on Wetpixel front page (^[65], ^[66])
• 2014-10: Blancpain Ocean Commitment website launched, featuring Ballesta’s Gombessa project (^[67])
• 2016-04: Speaker at ADEX 2016 in Singapore, presenting his Fakarava shark expedition film (^[68])
• 2016-07: Scientific paper on inverted trophic pyramid at Fakarava published in Current Biology (^[69])
• 2017-07: Images from deepest dive under Antarctic ice published by National Geographic (^[70])
• 2017-07: Gombessa IV Genesis full film documenting Fakarava expedition released with Blancpain (^[71])
• 2017-09: Antarctic seal image previewed as WPOTY 2017 shortlist (^[72])
• 2017-10: Won Earth’s Environments category at Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017 with Antarctic iceberg panorama; finalist in Behaviour: Mammals (^[73], ^[74])
• 2017-12: Selected for National Geographic’s Best Animal Photos of 2017 (^[75])
• 2017-12: Featured in NHM behind-the-scenes article sharing winning process (^[76])
• 2018-07: Announced as judge for Anilao Underwater Shootout 2018 (^[77])
• 2018-11: Judged and gave keynote talk at Anilao Underwater Shootout, stunning the audience with expedition imagery (^[78])
• 2019-02: In-depth interview by Henley Spiers published on Wetpixel, covering career, philosophy, and saturation diving plans (^[79])
• 2021-10: Won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Grand Title and Underwater category with “Creation” — spawning grouper at Fakarava (^[80], ^[81])
• 2022-10: Won the Portfolio category at WPOTY 2022 (^[82])

References