Ryuta Nakajima [3] is an Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at Department of Art and Design, University of Minnesota Duluth. His work attempts to answer the question: "Why do we make images, where do they come from, and what is their primary function?" One way he is tackling this enigma is by exploring the camoflauging behavior of cuttlefish in photographs [4] and video [5].
Nicole Macdonald [6]
Nicole Macdonald, an artist living in Australia, uses imagery of deep-sea creatures as a metaphor to explore the unconventional beauty and irrational fears of the abyss that are ever present in the human psyche. She tries to capture the anxiety people tend to feel with the hidden, the unseen and the unknown.
Maria Magdalena Antczak [7]
Born in Poland, Maria Magdalena Antczak is an archaeologist, holding her PhD from University College London. She is currently a professor at the Simon Bolivar University, Venezuela.
Kimberly Jermain [8]
Kimberly Jermain is a pastel artist who has experimented with drawing underwater while observing marine life for reef studies at the Palau International Coral Reef Center. She describes the challenges of trying to capture what she sees:
Daichi Fujita [9]
Daichi Fujita, a young Japanese artist, won the opportunity to dive aboard the ROV Hyper Dolphin in Kagoshima Bay, the shallowest habitat of vestimentiferan tubeworms known to exist. Daichi’s painting, The Deep-Sea Research Party, was selected from hundreds of entries for an art contest. The prize covered the travel costs for this young artist and a parent to see a place few will ever have the opportunity to visit.
Ørnulf Opdahl [10]
Norwegian artist Ørnulf Opdahl joined the MAR-ECO scientific team on an expedition to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, painting the wonders of life below and above the surface on board and after his return home.
Lily Simonson [11]
The Yeti Crab, a new species discovered by Census researcher Michel Segonzac during an expedition to the Easter Island microplate, inspired Lily Simonson’s paintings. She anthropomorphizes the creatures and highlights their otherworldly ambiguities, evoking specific aspects of human psychology.