Isolation

There are photographs that become important because of the moment they capture, and others because of everything that comes afterwards. Isolation became both.

I made this image in South Ari Atoll while spending time researching whale sharks with the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme. An adolescent whale shark began rising from the deep water below me, its spotted body slowly separating from the darkness as it moved towards the surface.

For a few seconds there was almost nothing else in the frame - just the animal, the black water beneath it and the faint light above.

I was still relatively early in my journey as a wildlife photographer at the time, and I certainly didn't expect this photograph to become one of the images most closely associated with my work. Since then it has been recognised by international photography competitions and appeared in publications around the world.

But what has always stayed with me is the simplicity of the original encounter: one whale shark emerging silently from the deep.

Isolation is a reminder that sometimes the strongest photographs are the ones that remove almost everything except the subject and the feeling of being there.