Photo credit, Amos Nachoum
“Fear makes me stay vigilant, it hasn’t stopped me from doing anything,” says Amos Nachoum, a wildlife photographer internationally renowned for his underwater images.
From Antarctica to the High Arctic, he has dove into extreme environments to capture some of the most magnificent and elusive predators that live underwater.
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Among the many creatures he has photographed, the list includes blue whales, orcas, anacondas, Nile crocodiles and, of course, sharks.
But unlike most photographers, Amos doesn't use a safety cage in the water.
"I wanted to show in pictures what you have to do to deal with the Great White," he explains to the BBC's Outlook radio show.
“If we don’t tease him, if we don’t aggravate him, we can be with them peacefully.”
No demons
In fact, he was only a meter away when he took photos of a great white shark.
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We are used to seeing the jaws of a shark as a symbol of terror.
But the Israeli photographer sees the elegance, power and beauty of the animal.
For 45 years, he says he has worked to change the widespread misconception that certain species, like the great white, are just merciless killing machines.
“There are no demons at sea,” he often says.
Now considered one of the best photographers in his field and the holder of numerous awards, Amos Nachoom had his first contact with a camera as a teenager, when he found one by chance in his father's storage room at the age of twelve.
He lived in Tel Aviv with his parents, a Jewish couple who had fled Libya.
Amos learned to use an old camera and began taking photos.
“I realized that photography gave me a chance to express myself,” he recalls.
His relationship with his father, whom he describes as a strict and disciplined man, was difficult.
He left home at the age of 14 to live and work with local fishermen, who taught him an essential skill, diving.
Departure from Israel
Later, as a young man, he completed his military service, which is obligatory in Israel, and fought in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
Amos says he was traumatized by the violence and left Israel to start a new life in the United States.
He drove taxis in New York and made a living doing odd jobs, before finding his place in the water - as a diving instructor.
While accompanying a group of tourists on a diving vacation, an old American man taking photos with an underwater camera gave him an idea.
He could do the same thing.
Once he combined diving with photography, he set out to bring a fresh perspective to the large creatures that lurk beneath the sea.
“The relationship with large animals, with sharks and whales, was very negative,” he recalls, “but my relationship was very positive.”
The ultimate dream
Amos had a special dream he wanted to achieve: to become the first man to photograph a polar bear - in water.
He remembers his father calling it a “suicide mission” when he heard about his plans.
“There was a total disconnect,” Amos says of his father, who would have preferred to see him settle down and get married.
"He gave up on me. He couldn't connect to what I was doing."
Undeterred, Amos traveled to the Arctic in the spring of 2000.
With the help of a local Inuit guide, he spotted a male polar bear and dove into the water.
“You always need a very good guide and a lot of experience before doing something like that, because there is a chance that there will be an accident.”
The wind pushed their boat away from Amos, while the polar bear kept getting closer.
But Amos had done his homework in advance. He had read that polar bears could not dive deeper than 10 meters.
"The polar bear is very heavy and has a lot of fat in its body and fur. It has to work very hard to get down," he explains.
Decades of experience have taught him to look for signs in an animal that might indicate an attack is imminent.
A great escape
When the bear got to within twenty feet of him, Amos dove, with the bear following him.
“Then it was a tragedy,” he says.
"I was about 15 to 17 meters away and he was still going down. I could only see his hand paws, his nose and his snout. Honestly, I was scared."
Amos had little luck fighting or fleeing the large carnivore.
"When I was about 75 feet away, I looked up. Instead of facing me vertically, the bear was more horizontal and swimming with the water level."
He survived, and fortunately, when he came to the surface, the polar bear was gone.
A trip to the Arctic costs a lot of money and preparation, including renting a charter plane and setting up tents.
Amos was determined to try a second time to take the photo of his dreams.
Second attempt
The opportunity came years later, when his student Yonatan Mir made a documentary film about him, taking the two men into the Arctic wilderness in 2015.
A budget of one million dollars (614,185,160 FCFA) was obtained for the project, a sum that would allow them to stay for just five days.
They searched for four days without any luck, until the joyous moment arrived.
“We saw them go down the hill and into the water.”
They had finally spotted a mother bear with her two cubs.
Photographing a polar bear with two cubs would be a first for a photographer.
This time, Amos Nachoum had a diving partner, Adam, who was there to film the event.
"They came closer and closer and straight towards us. I looked at Adam and took the regulator out of my mouth, smiled and put the regulator back in and went downstairs," Amos recalled.
“She (the polar bear) flew over our heads. I turned over on my stomach to take a photo of her.”
The image he took was the silhouette of a bear, so he waited for the shot showing the bears staring at him.
"The mother bear was above the water first. Then she put her head down. I was clicking, as many photos as I could take."
"My hero"
As Amos zoomed in on the polar bears, the documentary makers spoke to his father, who is now bedridden, back in Israel.
He described Amos as "my good boy, my crazy son and my hero."
For most of his adult life, Amos says he barely spoke to his father.
"I was stunned. I had a hard time understanding what was coming out of his mouth and knowing what he thought of me."
His father died before Amos could return to Israel.
But when he returned, he went to the cemetery, taking the framed photo of the polar bear with him to place on his father's grave.
“I achieved something he didn’t think I could do.”
But the famous photographer also adds.
“He challenged me to be the best I could be.”
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