David Doubilet
David Doubilet Profile
● Born and raised in New York City, David Doubilet began taking underwater photos aged 12, using a Brownie Hawkeye camera in a rubber anaesthetist’s bag, provided by his father.
● After graduating from Boston University in 1970, he shot his first assignment for National Geographic the following year.
● Fifty years on, David has completed nearly 80 underwater shoots for the magazine, working alongside his wife, marine biologist and photographer, Jennifer Hayes.
● He and Jennifer co-own the studio and stock photography company Undersea Images Inc, which they run from their home on the St Lawrence River, North America.
● His photography has been honoured by Pictures of the Year, Wildlife Photographer of the Year, World Press and the Lennart Nilsson Award for scientific photography.
They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, but David Doubilet has met his, and now I have met one of mine – it’s David Doubilet. Writing this now, I think I can safely say that neither of us has been disappointed by the experience! For David, his heroes were those photographers and editors at National Geographic, those who worked alongside the legendary Jacques Cousteau to pioneer underwater cameras and produce the first underwater photo and film documentaries. Then, as a young man, David joined their ranks and made his own mark with a signature style of photography that some have matched, but no-one has bettered.
These are the ‘half-and-half’ shots, where the camera lens is half submerged to show the scene evenly split above and below the waterline. It looks simple, especially when seeing a collection of these unique images in his book , but the making of
