“We’re making pictures that have to astound, that have to open people’s eyes, that have to stop people." says David Doubilet.

David Doubilet inadvertently realized his sense of awe with the underwater world as an 8-year-old at a New York summer camp. He opened his eyes under the water and was instantly mesmerized by a world of different light. Doubilet began his career in underwater photography by shooting through a rubber anesthesiologist’s bag, before eventually graduating to diving with scuba gear to the depths of the world’s oceans.

Describing his work, he says, “We go to the ends of the earth, and then we go underwater.” Since his first assignment over 40 years ago, Doubilet has had close to 70 stories published in National Geographic Magazine.

—Allison Russell, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill