Christian Vizl: Silent Kingdom
Online Exhibition
Christian Vizl: Silent Kingdom
Christian Vizl was born in México City and has been a photographer for over three decades. He has won dozens of international photography awards including Wildlife Photographer of the Year, International Photographer of the Year, Sony World Photography Awards and World Photographic Cup. He has served as judge in several international underwater photography contests and his images have been published in numerous outlets including National Geographic and Ocean Geographic. This exhibition features select images from the 2019 book Silent Kingdom: A World Beneath the Waves, written by David Doubilet, Dr. Sylvia A. Earle, and Christian Vizl. His captivating black-and-white images and mastery of shadow and light capture the ocean’s creatures as they are rarely seen, at home in the ethereal world beneath the waves. Vizl simultaneously portrays both the beauty and fragile nature of these animals to educate and raise awareness of the threats to the world’s oceans and marine life.
Artist’s Statement
“Every since I can remember, and long before I became a diver, I felt seduced by the sea. I dreamt about what lay beneath the waves, and how it would look if suddenly all the water vanished leaving in stasis all the animals and living creatures. In this way I could walk inside the ocean and see them all, suspended for a moment in time and space.
I have devoted my life to explore and contemplate the amazing beauty of the ocean and it has been an incredible journey that has brought me a deep feeling of connection with nature, but sadly during my lifetime I have witness the ever-increasing devastation that we humans are creating in this planet. Today, the world´s Oceans are in grave danger; overfishing, pollution, plastics, radiation, climate change, acidification and other human pressures threaten the fundamental nature of the oceans and its animals are being pushed to near extinction. The time to act and reverse our negative impact is now, before it´s too late, risking loosing everything.
The majority of humans see marine life as merely tons of food, but I see them as so much more than that. They don´t have a voice that we can understand, so the higher purpose of my images is to be a voice of the ocean and for the ocean, hoping that people will get a glimpse of who they really are; beautiful sentient individuals with feelings and different personalities, with complex behaviors and interesting lives that science is only starting to understand.
I believe photography is capable of real service to humanity, promoting empathy and initiating change, so my main purpose as a photographer is to create poetic images showing the incredible beauty of these animals knowing they carry the power of changing our perception and spark the love and empathy that we all have inside. If we want to have a future in this planet, we need to understand that our lives are interconnected to all living animals and their environment, and our own well being is directly linked to the wellbeing of the entire ecosystem. As oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle stated ‘no blue, no green, if the oceans die, we die.’
All images where taken in their natural environment with great respect to the animals and for digital post-production I only use basic Adobe Lightroom settings.”
- Christian Vizl
