Jorgen Rasmussen
Contributing Photographer
Growing up near the sea in Denmark, the oceans have always had a special place in Jorgen’s heart. When he was eight, Jorgen spent all his savings on his first windsurf board and used most of his childhood and youth windsurfing off the beaches along the coast.
After his studies, Jorgen started an international career. Work brought him to many exotic destinations including Borneo and Australia. Through documenting his journeys, Jorgen developed a passion for wildlife photography.
It was on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef that Jorgen first felt in love with scuba diving and quickly qualified as a dive master. Soon after, he bought his first underwater camera. Capturing and sharing the underwater world became Jorgen’s biggest passion.
Jane Goodall famously said that only if we understand can we care. We only protect things we care about. Our oceans and marine life is under extreme pressure due to overfishing, pollution and other human influences. Only few experience the underwater world first hand. It is our job as ambassadors of the ocean and nature photographer to help making people understand and care. Jorgen strive to produce imagery that make people connect with marine life and feel the ambience of the underwater world. He often uses ambient light and black and white as a method to highlight and isolate the essence.
Encouraged by a photographic workshop, Jorgen started submitting pictures to international competitions. His imagery has won some of the world’s most prestigious awards including three first prizes at the World Underwater Image Festival, the Photographer of Festival at Celebrate the Sea and ADEX Photographer of the Year. In 2009, Jorgen was named photographer-in-residence at Ocean Geographic.
Close encounters with large marine life often require agility and cautious approaches. Scuba equipment slows us down and bubbles can also be a problem. Freediving or simply snorkelling are often the best approach.
“When photographing large marine life, i found myself leaving the scuba gear behind. Freediving offered greater agility and allowed me to keep up with the action. My breath hold skills were however limiting. Training with Australian record breaking freediver combined with regular ocean session has enabled me to freely interact with marine life such as dolphins on one breath – a truly liberating experience”. [Jorgen Rasmussen]
Recent developments in technologies offer opportunities to photograph wildlife from new and different angles. Jorgen is actively pursuing new ways to create engaging nature pictures.
Jorgen is now based in Queensland, Australia where he regularly explore the local area on his sailing catamaran Songlines. He balances the professional career with great local diving and frequent expeditions to the world’s wildlife hot spots.