IMAGINE SCROLLING THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA posts or flipping through your favorite dive magazine. Your eye catches a photo of the most pristine waters you have seen. The sun is peeking through the surface, beautifully illuminating coral in pops of color in every direction. A diver overhead perfectly balances the composition.
BEFORE THE INTERNET WAS AVAILABLE, people read print magazines to learn about scuba diving — how to do it, what gear to buy, and where to go. For 51 years, from 1951 to 2002, the king of the genre was Skin Diver magazine. The undisputed queen of cover photography for Skin Diver was Geri Murphy.
Imagine waking up in the early hours of the morning at your favorite dive site. The sun hasn’t quite peaked above the horizon, and light is minimal. You don your dive gear, grab your camera, and giant stride off the back of the boat to begin your descent into the dimly lit ocean.
Over the years I have often admired Gerald Nowak’s underwater photos. There is so little overlap between the markets available to European versus North American photographers, however, that I did not know the backstory of his career. A recent phone call rectified that.
