Synopses & Reviews
Award winning photographer Alexander Mustard joins forces with leading author Nick Hanna to bring you this remarkable book which captures the soul of scuba diving and takes the experience of being underwater to new imaginative levels. Scuba is one of the most popular adventure sports activities on the planet, with over 20 million people qualified to explore the world beneath the waves. More than just a sport and a physical challenge, scuba diving takes people into another dimension and exerts a magnetic influence which gets them quickly addicted. Every dive is different, a fresh experience, enthralling us and drawing us back into the magic world of the oceans again and again. Once a sport dominated by macho feats of depth and endurance, diving has matured into something more meaningful--an art form requiring agility and grace. Both author and photographer share the same fresh stimulating approach, breathing new life into such topics as keeping kit simple and perfecting buoyancy control as well explaining the art of fish watching and how to make the most of meetings with remarkable creatures. The Art of Diving is also about the spirit of the seas, free diving, the spiritual dimensions of being underwater as well as considering the fate of the oceans and the threats facing the marine environment today. A specially created companion web site www.artofdiving.com tells you about the making of the book and is packed full of dynamic intent including a special zone with restricted access for members only--membership is FREE for readers of The Art of Diving. And especially for keen underwater photographers the www.artofdiving.com photo gallery includes technical details and extended captions for each of the images in this book, some of which are also available to download as screen savers. Whether you are an advanced diver, aspiring beginner or have yet to experience your first dive, welcome The Art of Diving and adventure in the underground world.
Review
"Come, dive into Nick Hanna and Alexander Mustard's bright blue world. This is the best book about diving since Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World. Here turtles bow, flounders court, sharks skulk, and, best of all, divers leap, soar, and even meditate. Alex has a unique eye. This is dynamic underwater imagery at its best."--David Doubilet
Review
"The Art of Diving is the most magical, most beautiful, most insightful book ever written about scuba diving."--Willy Wolk, Divester.com "This book beautifully reveals the deepest secrets of our love affair with the liquid world."--Tim Ecott
Synopsis
A landmark photography collection by an award-winning photographer [landmark is good in conveying that this is important and not to be missed, but it also makes it sound a bit conventional. There’s actually something iconoclastic about these images – they are absolutely fresh, surprising, true to the experiences people have yet even better than they can imagine. Colorful, vibrant, larger-than-life, yet somehow real, hyperreal . . . along those lines.]
Scuba diving has become one of the world’s most popular adventure sports, with now more than 20 million registered divers. Enthusiasts’ passion grows from their exploration of a completely magical and otherworldly dimension under the sea. Each dive is a fresh experience, revealing a different diorama, captured in full color in this magnificent book. With a perfect blend of art and science, the text and photography recreates the emotional and sensual dimension of diving as well as conveying the intellectual fascination of meeting unusual underwater creatures and observing the condition of marine environments. An unparalleled compilation that also documents the world’s best diving venues, undersea caves, wrecks and wildlife, this book is almost as transcendent as diving itself.
Dr. Alexander Mustard is a young marine scientist and photographer who lives in England. Winner of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his underwater work, his work has been exhibited in photography shows in England and France.
Nick Hanna is a travel writer and scuba diver who also lives in England.
About the Author
Nick Hanna is the author of eleven guidebooks, including several on diving. Alexander Mustard is a marine scientist who has won numerous photography awards, including the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year award and continues to publish scientific papers, most recently in the journal Nature.