Mediterranean Planet

Follow the adventure...

> What secrets is the Mediterranean Sea keeping from us?
> What is its actual level of pollution?
> Is it a dead or living sea? A sea that has been damaged or on the mend?
> What treasures still await Man's discovery?
> Because all these questions of current vital importance lie at the heart of environmental debates.
> Because the Mediterranean Sea is more than just a large body of water, it's a small ocean with an oversized History.
> Because the Gombessa V expedition is like none other, offering lots to be learned and filled with hope...

Mediterranean Planet forms a sequel to Laurent Ballesta's latest works: Secrets d'Oc�ans (Oceans' Secrets), Ad�lie Terre & Mer (Ad�lie Earth & Sea) and 700 requins dans la nuit (700 Sharks in the Dead of Night). It represents the accomplishment of his personal endeavors during the eponymous July 2019 expedition, while also providing closure to the more comprehensive effort underway in the Mediterranean. This publication is thus a compilation of the biologist-photographer's most spectacular shots from 2010 through the present day.

Accompanied by minimal textual content, the photographs of rare creatures never before illustrated exhibiting unusual behavior tell the story with each page turned of natural history and lived history. From the extraordinary biodiversity of the coral reefs to the seascapes far beneath the surface, Laurent Ballesta has embarked on an excursion into these otherworldly ecosystems that actually exist on Earth and make up the Mediterranean Planet.

This book also conforms with the longstanding tradition of works that pay tribute to the marine world by offering unique insights into an ecosystem that has not yet unveiled all its secrets. After several deep-sea diving expeditions spanning the globe under the "Gombessa" flag, the Gombessa V "Mediterranean Planet" campaign is Laurent's last at the helm. A world first, this expedition meant Laurent Ballesta and three other divers would cohabitate for 28 days inside a 5-m2 pressurized module designed for both saturation diving and deep sport diving, from Marseille to Bandol, Carqueiranne to Saint-Tropez, Sainte-Maxime to Antibes, and finally from Antibes to Monaco.
Are we still capable of producing truly original images on the Mediterranean? Are there still surprises to be discovered? Mediterranean Planet forms a sequel to Laurent Ballesta's latest works: Secrets d'Oc�ans (Oceans' Secrets), Ad�lie Terre & Mer (Ad�lie Earth & Sea) and 700 requins dans la nuit (700 Sharks in the Dead of Night).
Laurent Ballesta was the youngest photographer ever to receive the prestigious Gold Diver award at the International Festival of Underwater Images held in Antibes.

In 1999, he was named scientific advisor in marine settings for the TV series Ushuaia Nature, alongside the explorer and show host Nicolas Hulot. For 12 consecutive years, he made the most of his travels in expanding his compendium of deep-sea fauna from across the world.

In 2000, alongside Pierre Descamp, he founded the Eye of Andromeda Association, in the aim of reconciling oceanological studies with an artistic appreciation of the marine environment. This effort would lead in 2008 to the creation of a company, named Oceanological Andromeda.

In 2007, he shot the deepest photograph ever taken by a diver, at 190 m (623 ft) underwater off the coast of Nice.

In 2009, he organized a covert expedition to South Africa to realize a dream, namely diving with Gombessa (another name given to the area's coelacanth fish) and bringing back the very first photograph of the living fossil taken by a diver 120 m (393 ft) underwater. This mission would lead to the first Gombessa expedition, 4 years later, to carry out the initial scientific protocols on a living coelacanth specimen at a depth of 120 m (393 ft).

Since then, Laurent Ballesta has led 4 Gombessa expeditions: The Grouper Mystery (2015), Antarctica, On the Footsteps of the Emperor (2017), and 700 Sharks in the Dead of Night (2018).

In 2017, The Hidden Face of the Iceberg, ushered in History's first photographic series revealing an iceberg in its entirety, and earning him the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year award in the category Earth Environments. Laurent Ballesta is now renowned as one of the world's leading underwater photographers.