Born in America in 1946, David Doubilet began snorkelling at the age of eight; by the age of thirteen, he was taking his first underwater photographs with a pre-war Leica in the green sea off the New Jersey coast. Having studied photography at Boston University, he published his first pictures in National Geographic in 1972 and has continued to do so regularly since then, reporting from oceans around the world.

He has captured ground-breaking images of great white sharks, creatures of the undersea desert, flourescent corals and shipwrecks. Widely acclaimed as the world's leading underwater photographer, Doubilet has received numerous awards including 'Pictures of the Year' repeatedly, as well as the prestigious 'Lennart Nilsson Prize' in 2001.