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28
Dec
CALGARY & TORONTO
Openings
May 2023
CALGARY
The Living Sea - Fragile Beauty
The Glenbow Museum, Calgary
May 11 - 21, 2023
They say a picture is worth a thousand words but we can do better, you and eye.
I can’t tell you what a privilege and honor it is to be here or how grateful to you I am for having me here.
It’s the privilege of a lifetime being able to bring to you what is essentially the realization of my childhood dreams.
And, further, to ask you to share it with others.
Because in the end the goals for me are awareness, education and change, not just aesthetically pleasing images.
So many things have converged to bring The Living Sea to you, to Canada.
Brilliant volunteers, guides, committed teams… leaders and technicians from Kenya, Portugal and the UK paved the way.
It’s always a life lesson for me as I witness the hard work, collaboration, volunteerism…
community cohesion, innovation, wisdom… and kindness that goes into putting on this show. And frequently, as is needed in large and complex productions, dollops of humor.
It’s only because of this help, your help, and the technical capacity of our Spanish design company, Tau Diseno, that the show is possible.
The Tau folk could nearly convince you that not all Spaniards take long siestas after lunch, focus only on having fun and work as little as possible.
Just as a few talented photo manipulators could convince you that someone with seawater between their ears and excess nitrogen in their blood can take good photos!
Being able to entrust the images and material to my team – Patrick, Antonin, Nazir, Farrah and Izzy here – and to Tau Diseno is what allows me to live what photographer Steve McCurry considers the best life:
traveling to different countries and taking photographs.
To capture more images of diverse, wondrous ecosystems and animals and – to my regret – evidence of human causes of their destruction.
Consider the following stats: 68% loss of wildlife over 40 years, plastic production set to quadruple… 91% of plastic not recycled. A third of shark and cetacean species at risk of extinction… well over half of the great barrier reef affected by bleaching events… And we are likely to lose 70-90% of our remaining coral within the next 20 years.
Before we go any further, I’d like immediately to thank University of Calgary Chancellor John Cornish and Chairman Mark Herman for hosting us here today… and the Glenbow Museum for housing the exhibition.
I wouldn’t have dreamed in a thousand years that any museum would show my work.
Further gratitude is owed to dozens more people, including The Ismaili Council for Canada: Zahra Somani, Ameerally Kassim-Lakha, Moez Rajwani, Al-Noor Nenshi Nathoo, Karim Haji and Mahmoud Eboo.
The Living Sea exhibition keeps changing. It’s becoming more and more educational, as I had hoped, and continues to incorporate new work while keeping the best of the old.
Main characters here include exquisite angelfish; gorgeous coral reefs; streamlined, bold and beautiful sharks; tightknit groups of spotted and spinner dolphins… loving humpback mums and calves -- including a calf that bumped my leg and looked me right in the eye as it swam past a few years ago… gigantic and powerful sperm whales…
Wise- and even kind-looking sea turtles – some of whom stayed by my side for over thirty minutes…
insanely graceful and delicate manta rays which frequently come up to divers with immense curiosity and occasionally play with them.
Groupers that not only show no fear but might also follow you for minutes at a time.
Some of my best memories, most memorable encounters and favorite animals are featured here.
But that should perhaps not be the takeaway.
Ideally visitors will fall in love with my subjects, stay attached or gain interest in them, learn about their plight and consider ways they might help.
Help ecosystems and their inhabitants, the planet itself and, as a direct consequence, ultimately people.
Jacques Cousteau and David Attenborough might remind us that whilst we once depended on nature to live and imagined the planet too large and resilient to do it harm, nature now depends entirely on us merely to survive.
Sylvia Earle reminds us the whole planet depends on our seas with her “no blue, no green” quote.
The ocean, after all, provides us one of every two breaths we take.
Thank you all so much. Welcome to my Wonderland!
Enjoy your visit, know that there are THOUSANDS of overexposed and blurry photographs behind all of these…
and let me know if there are questions.
TORONTO
The Living Sea - Fragile Beauty
The Ismaili Centre, Toronto
May 24 - June 4, 2023
They say a picture is worth a thousand words but we can do better, you and eye.
It’s a delight to be here and a joy to meet you all.
The opportunity of a lifetime to share the work with you…
Before we get started I’d like to thank the people who’ve made all this possible.
My team of Patrick, Antonin, Nazir, Farrah and Izzy.
Their combined talent is more than considerable, the work hours innumerable, their patience superhuman.
The design company in Spain, Tau Diseno, who have now designed, produced, mounted and dismounted something like 5 shows. Amazingly dedicated and professional, they occasionally stay up all night to finish setting up.
My beloved wife for letting me go off on expeditions and focus on exhibitions, for keeping the home fires burning, but not yet burning down the house. For feeding the aquarium fish and dogs.
Photo touch-up master Mike Lappin, who might convince you that someone with seawater between their ears and excess nitrogen in their blood can take good photos – and who can make mistakes look like art.
But especially Mahmoud Eboo, Ameerally Kassim-Lakha and the Ismaili Council for Canada. Tour guides and other volunteers… everyone behind the scenes and all the folk who will be responsible for aspects of the show in Canada. The performers of Child of the Ocean, which never fails to bring tears to my eyes.
The people who blazed the Living Sea trails before Canada – folk in Kenya, the UK and Portugal.
You wouldn’t believe the quantity of work that goes into mounting a show like this one.
It’s extremely humbling for me, a life lesson, as I witness the work ethic, professionalism and dedication, volunteerism, technical genius, and kindness of the Jamat.
I feel beyond blessed and grateful.
It can be easy to forget that once upon a time it was a show in a gallery every year and a half, with maybe 50 guests – family and friends. My team needing to look over every detail from budgets to invitations and menus. And we’d be lucky if anyone learned anything.
It’s only because of ample help and enthusiasm that the show is possible.
The Living Sea is now a thousand times greater than me.
My goals of awareness and education through conservation photography are increasingly being met and the images look better than ever.
Being able to entrust them and other material to my team, Tau and the Ismaili community is what allows me to continue doing what I do with peace of mind. To commune with animals, discover ecosystems and hunt for images that tell stories.
The hope is that you will engage with the work, that the images will inspire emotion and that you might leave with greater appreciation of nature – as well as an augmented desire to protect it.
The backdrop is the following: 68% loss of wildlife over 40 years… more plastic in our seas than fish by 2050.
A third of shark and cetacean species at risk of extinction…
The extinction rate probably a thousand times what it used to be.
Well over half of the great barrier reef affected by bleaching events…
There is a very real possibility that the planet will actually warm by 3 degrees, not under 1.5, by the end of the century.
Just a few days ago an article told us that 48% of species studied have declining populations and only 3% increasing.
Main characters in The Living Sea include exquisite angelfish; gorgeous coral reefs; bold and beautiful sharks;
social and intelligent spinner dolphins…
A duo of loggerhead turtles engaging in a love-bite. A pair of spotted dolphins that stayed with a crew and me, playing with us, with each other and jellyfish for 2 hours and 55 minutes…
Elegant and graceful manta rays – with the biggest brain and most charisma of all fish… A lovely sperm whale calf, hanging at the surface, allowing me to swim all around it.
A magnificent spinner dolphin in the light above me. A sea lion sitting right inside the dive boat in the Galapagos.
An absolutely adorable humpback whale calf looking me right in the eye.
A huge adult female doing the same but turning towards me, her fins outstretched and hovering vertical, as she seems to peer into my soul.
Some of my best memories, least forgettable encounters and favorite animals are featured here.
But that should perhaps not be the takeaway.
Ideally visitors will fall in love with my subjects, stay attached or gain interest in them,
learn about their plight and consider ways they can assist.
Indeed, helping nature and helping humanity are not mutually exclusive. Climate change and plastic pollution are prime examples of this.
Jacques Cousteau and David Attenborough might remind us that whilst we once depended on nature to live, nature now depends entirely on us merely to survive.
Sylvia Earle tells us the whole planet depends on our seas with her “no blue, no green”.
The ocean, after all, provides us one of every two breaths we take. It provides nourishment or employment
To hundreds of millions.
Thank you all so much.
Enjoy your visit and know that there are THOUSANDS of overexposed and blurry photographs behind all of these…