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The photographer Wayne Levin is best known for his extraordinary underwater pictures. This stunning body of work takes us into the unknown: the strange, sometimes murky undersea world. Working almost exclusively in black and white, he makes us look afresh at the ocean and changes our assumptions about the art of photography itself. His pictures express the heart of the Poseidon experience – the freedom and human curiosity: the very reasons we dive. For that reason a selection of Wayne Levin images have been chosen as a reflection of the company’s values and philosophy. Wayne Levin and Poseidon are natural partners, sharing a sense of awe and wonderment, and a desire to explore and experience, without intruding or disturbing the ecology of the deep. Appropriately, Wayne Levin is interested not only in seascapes and animals, but in the ocean itself: the texture, movement and volume of the water. It is this visceral sense of power– of how it feels to be right there within the vastness of the ocean - that accords perfectly with Poseidon’s dedication to a pure, unrestricted diving experience. Early in his underwater career, Wayne Levin sensed that the modern formula of colour film and flash illumination was a constraint on his vision, as the water filtered out most of the spectrum and the flash restricted his viewpoint. By changing to black and white, and using natural light, he saw the mystery of the ocean unfolding before him. Back on shore, he again turned to traditional techniques, adjusting contrast in the darkroom and pre-fogging the paper to breathe a sense of depth into individual prints: like the dives themselves, no two are ever exactly alike. Wayne Levin lives in Honolulu with his wife and daughter. Poseidon: How did you start in photography? Wayne Levin: Like many photographers, it all started with my first camera. My father gave me a box Brownie for my birthday when I was 12. I was really fortunate because he also gave me a developing kit, which meant I could take all the pictures I wanted, and see the results quickly. After high school I attended the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, but I left in 1964. It was a key time for the civil rights movement, and I worked for several years with the Congress of Racial Equality and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Of course, leaving college put an end to my deferment and I came close to getting drafted; but I had become fascinated with the sea as a teenager racing sailboats in California, so I joined the Navy instead. So even at this early point, the two things were coming together: my photography and my interest in everything to do with the sea. P: Why Hawaii? WL: I was born in Los Angeles, but the family moved to Hawaii while I was away in the Navy. So that’s where I went when I was discharged. Then I got the travel bug and took off for a year and a half trip around the world. When I got back, I worked for several years with the Hawaiian photographer Robert Wenkham and the architectural photographer Augie Salbosa, and then set up my own commercial photography business. I also went back to school, to complete my photographic education.

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