In an effort to help preserve the oceans, Mexican-born photographer and conservationist Cristina Mittermeier spends a lot of time recording the beauty beneath the waves. A marine biologist by training, Mittermeier turned to photography when she realized that scientists were poor communicators and that people were more interested in photography than science.
Her photography career started by accident when her now ex-husband inadvertently won an award for a photograph she’d taken. Realizing she might have a knack for photography, she switched careers.
On a trip to French Polynesia, she recorded the interaction between Titouan Bernicot and a playful pink whiptail stingray in the warm shallows around Bernicot’s home island of Moorea, a photograph she titled “Alone Together.” Mittermeier was struck by how Bernicot, who was born on a pearl farm in the middle of the Pacific, seemed just as comfortable underwater as his gilled play pal.
“Photography has allowed me to rekindle that intrinsic connection we all share with our ocean and bring viewers face to face with the beauty and fragility of our planet,” Mittermeier writes. “Images can help us understand the urgency many photographers feel to protect wild places.”
Mittermeier now roams the world with her life partner, renowned Canadian wildlife photographer, videographer and marine biologist Paul Nicklen. In 2019, to increase time spent on and beneath the ocean, they purchased a 62-foot ketch-rigged catamaran and named her SeaLegacy 1, after the nonprofit they created to show the global community what is at stake. Prints of “Alone Together” and other photographs by Mittermeier are available through mitty.art and the nonprofit Vital Impacts to help raise funds for four environmental organizations, including SeaLegacy.
This article was originally published in the March 2022 issue.
