Otherworldly Deep, Photographs of the Ethereal

Dear Readers,

Have you ever walked through a graveyard at night? Have you ever been alone in the dark and felt that tingly sensation that makes your hair stand up and gives you shivers? Have you ever awakened at night, heard voices, heard sounds, felt a breeze, or simply felt that something was "off"? You know, heard voices, felt a presence, seen a light or shape, or simply experienced something that gave you goosebumps? This book is not only for those who have experienced such, but also to artistically illustrate the "Otherworldly" aspects of the vast and mysterious sea.

My first trio of underwater photography volumes was devoted to documenting and artistically visualizing living mollusks. Living Shells, Living Mollusks, and The Art of the Living Mollusk revealed the wonders of living mollusks ranging from the weird pelagic mollusks found during a blackwater night dive to the weird cephalopods and living seashells; from the very rare, never before photographed, living shells to the commonplace shells photographed artistically. All these books were successes and won a multitude of awards, both domestic and international, both for art and for photography.

My next book expanded my artistic photography by revealing the Curves and Angles of this world. My partner, Leah, and I had been diving together for several years when we teamed up with Nus, a famous Indonesian divemaster, to publish our book detailing the undersea creatures of Indonesia, The Undersea Art of Indonesia. This current book, The Otherworldly Deep: Photographs of the Ethereal, is an attempt to go a step further, actually giant leaps further, than the mollusk books and even beyond the Indonesian book. We want to show our faithful Readers another aspect of the undersea world ... the Otherworldly aspect of this vast, mysterious, mystical underwater world. In this volume, we hope to acquaint our wonderful Audience with the ethereal aspect of this world. Through our photographs and text, we want to show our Audience just how extremely mystical and outrageously strange the deep blue really is. As we said before, if you have ever felt "goosebumps" or the "Willies" as I call that feeling, if you have ever been diving and felt that you were not alone, ever heard voices, singing, seen shapes, or unexplained lights, these photographs and experiences are for you! Please enjoy what we anticipate will be photos that you have never before seen and feelings unique to these subjects.

Thank you! Charles and Leah