2021 EPoY third place, Matty Smith - Oceanographic

3rd place Exploration Photographer of the Year

Matty Smith Australia

34°35'50.3"S 150°53'58.4"E

Squid portrait. “I had spent several winters exploring various inland waters and bays at night looking for squid to photograph,” says photographer Matty Smith. “I find their behaviour and colourings mesmerising. I wanted to produce images that really captured their personality. I found by lying on my back on the sand on the seabed and shooting from below almost anthropomorphises their faces and reveals a character rarely seen.”

BEHIND THE LENS

Matty Smith United Kingdom (UK)

ABOUT THE IMAGE

Glassy calm water
Taken while scuba diving
Pre-dawn shoot
Walk-in shore dive

Matty Smith is an internationally-acclaimed award-winning photographer. He is based in Australia, having emigrated from the UK in 2007. "I have the worlds biggest playground at my feet, the Pacific Ocean," he says. "And I have truly fallen in love with it."