James Morgan

Oceans

Oceans uses strong, clean cinematic compositions to suspend human and animal subjects in underwater frames. The water becomes both a character and a modifier of light, reflecting, refracting and revealing the subjects it surrounds. Focused primarily on the Bajau Laut - a community of sea nomads in the coral triangle region of the Indo-Pacific - these photographs were made entirely using breath-hold, without scuba equipment. Over the course of multiple trips to visit the Bajau, James learnt to hold his breath for minutes at a time in order to see the underwater world through their eyes. Deliberately cinematic, the images appear imaginative, alluding to the prominent role the ocean has always played in global mythologies. Yet, behind the playfulness and romanticism, there is a stark warning: that we are as dependent on the ocean as we are on the air we breathe, and that our future is deeply entwined with the fate of these mysterious ocean creatures.

Photographer

James Morgan

James Morgan is a London-based film director and photographer whose work explores our shifting relationship with the natural world.

Spanning a decade, and over fifty countries, his large format photographs capture the shared experience of humans and animals - emphasising both our oneness with the animal kingdom and charting our inevitable separation from it. The photographs have appeared in magazines and galleries around the world and have contributed to sparking debate and policy change on environmental and indigenous rights issues.

In film, James recently made Becoming You, a six part series for Apple TV, narrated by Olivia Colman, and Sea Dragon, a period heist film about the discovery of the first Ichthyosaur. James is now working on a contemporary environmental thriller set in Northeast Greenland.

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