Im Fokus: Laurent Ballesta

“Biodiversity is often presented through numbers and percentages relating to the extinction of a number of species. But that’s not what it is. Biodiversity is first and foremost a substantial reality, made of flesh and scales, of tentacles and antennae, the immensity of which we don’t even realise. The deeper I dive, the more I realise just how little I know about these depths.” Laurent Ballesta Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole and an expert in extreme weather, was used to say that “adventure is an explorer’s worst enemy”. This is because real exploration can only occur when three boxes are ticked: thoroughness, planning, preparation. Laurent Ballesta can testify to this. It would be unfair to label this biologist by training and diver by trade a mere “underwater photographer”. Born in the South of France, Roald Amundsen has, for the past 30 years, taken on challenging both his body’s and the underwater world’s limits. His hope is to keep pushing a little further into the notorious “twilight zone”, where the light fades and the abysses emerge. In 2019, he took part in a 28-day underwater adventure –the maximum time allowed for this type of deep dive– with three other divers, in a craft the size of a train’s sleeping cabin. In this extremely confined space, they ate and slept in pressure equivalent to that found in the depths of the ocean. Breathing a mixture of Heliox –composed mainly of helium and barely 4% oxygen– their expedition would, at times, take them to depths of 142 metres over a total of 31 dives. These conditions resembled a spacewalk on the ISS more than a diving expedition. Combining passion, research and photography is central to this photographer’s approach, and he has carved out a place for himself alongside other major photographers in the field, including Paul Nicklen, David Doubilet and Brian Skerry. With the aim of conducting research that enhances our understanding, Laurent Ballesta fosters a deep sense of awe and hopes to inspire efforts to protect our increasingly fragile underwater environment. While these environments remain inhospitable and mysterious to humans, they are nonetheless essential to the human species’ life on Earth.