This Month in Photo of the Day: The Power of Photography

A snorkeling tourist floats in a cenote called Las Calaveras—“the skulls”—near Tulum. Local Maya got their drinking water here until about 30 years ago, when divers found bones. Archaeologists have recorded the remains of more than a hundred people, usually shrouded by the water’s primordial darkness.

See more pictures from the August 2013 feature story “Secrets of the Maya Underworld.”

Nicklen was one of 44 photographers we interviewed for our video portrait series The Photographers on Photography. Watch an intro to the series on Proof. »