Oceanographic magazine (OM): When did you first get into diving and connect with the ocean?

ALEX DAWSON (AD): “I started scuba diving in 1993, purely by coincidence. Stockholm holds a water festival every July and August, mostly music, food and partying, but with a nod to the city’s watery surroundings. They sold coupons for various activities, one of which was a try-dive. That’s how I got my first taste, and I was hooked immediately.

The guy who ran that try-dive – who later became my boss when I worked in the Canary Islands – could sell sand to someone stranded in the Sahara desperate for water. He was that good a salesman, so of course we booked another course.”

OM: How did that turn into underwater photography?

AD: “I’d had my own compact camera since the 1980s, a gift from my mum, so I had my own camera very early and always liked taking pictures. Once I started diving, dive centres had rental cameras, so I rented and used one a few months after getting certified. My first shot was surprisingly good, so shortly after that I decided to take a camera out on loan again.

In May 1994 I got some strong shots on the Swedish west coast, and by summer 1995 I’d bought my own compact – film, of course, so you had no idea what you’d got until later, which forced you to be technically precise. Four years on I got my first single-lens reflex camera and entered the Swedish Championship in underwater photography, taking Rookie of the Year and third place overall. That’s when I decided this was what I wanted to do.”

OM: What kept bringing you back?

AD: “Something very simple: I was fascinated by diving itself. For my first 50 dives I just floated around breathing underwater, thinking, this is amazing, this is so cool. I wanted to share that experience with my family and friends who weren’t diving, and that grew into wanting to show everyone who doesn’t dive – the 99 per cent of the population who have no ability to see or experience this world. Reading diving magazines, I got inspired and decided it would be incredible to work for one myself, sharing the underwater world with people who’d never otherwise see it. That’s still the idea: reach the people who don’t dive, and inspire them.