About

Henley Spiers is a renowned underwater photographer, writer, and expedition leader who has fast become one of the most highly decorated wildlife image-makers in the world. He is currently installed as the first ever Storyteller in Residence for Oceanographic Magazine.

Starting his professional career in the ocean as a dive instructor, working in the Philippines, Indonesia and Saint Lucia, he later fell in love with underwater imagery and made the transition to full-time photographer. 

Since then, Henley has amassed a prolific series of award-winning images, including the coveted Grand Prize of the HIPA contest, multiple category wins in the Underwater Photographer of the Year, category winner in the Nature Photographer of the Year, winner of the Ocean Geographic David Doubilet Portfolio Award, runner-up in the Ocean Photographer of the Year, category winner in the British Wildlife Photography Awards and winner in the Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

Henley’s photography is published in The Sunday Times, Der Spiegel, The Economist, Sierra Magazine, The Guardian, BBC Wildlife Magazine, Terre Sauvage amongst many others.

As an accomplished (and bilingual) writer, Henley’s words often accompany his images, he is a regular contributor of features to Oceanographic magazine (UK), EZ Dive magazine (Taiwan), divemaster magazine (Germany) and Plongez! magazine (France). Other prominent writing credits include Asian Diver, Outdoor Photography Magazine, bioGraphic, Hakai Magazine, Coast Magazine and Black + White Photography magazine.

Henley is an author of two books. He is a co-author of Black is the New Blue Vol. II which showcases the strange yet delightful creatures to be found when blackwater diving. Guide to Cebu, co-written with his wife Jade, is a detailed homage to the very best diving to be found in their former home.

Henley is honoured to be part of the Blancpain family in support of its Edition Fifty Fathoms Ocean Commitment programme, joining a select group of the world’s foremost underwater photographers.

Henley’s distinctive vision for fine art aquatic images now sees prints of his work adorning walls around the globe, and internationally exhibited.

In demand as a speaker, Henley has a wide variety of richly illustrated talks to cater for every audience, from seasoned explorers and photographers to school children.

Henley has acted as competition judge for a wide variety of photography contests, including Wild Art Photographer of the Year, ADEX Voice of the Ocean, and the CMAS World Championships of underwater photography.

During the height of the pandemic, he founded The Shot Chat, an online resource designed to give the inside track on how some of the world’s top underwater photographers think and feel about images, as well as how they strive to create them.

Henley also leads expeditions to see incredible underwater wildlife encounters, specialising in small-group adventures to rarely seen locations and events. Sought-after as a teacher, Henley’s coaching on these trips has seen a number of attendees go on to become award-winning photographers in their own right.

Although he would be the first to admit that he can still do more to help, Henley has so far enjoyed collaborating in the field of ocean conservation with a wide variety of organisations, including Blue Marine, Mission Blue, Bertarelli Foundation, Marine Conservation Society, Marine Megafauna Foundation, Mobula Conservation, The Wildlife Trusts, and Thunnus UK.

Henley, half British and half French, lives in Devon, UK, with his wife, Jade, and their two young daughters.


Henley’s work is gratefully supported by:

Each of these companies excels at creating great things whilst caring about the ocean and our planet.

Backstory

I am completely and utterly in love with the sea. As a child, I quickly developed a passion for the underwater world through snorkelling and freediving. At twelve years old, my dad needed a dive buddy and I was roped into doing my Openwater course. My scuba diving adventure had begun and, looking back, it’s one of the best things my parents ever did for me! I went down a fairly conventional route for a while and spent a few years in the corporate world as a marketing consultant. I suppose things were looking good on paper but I didn’t feel fulfilled. On the slow days I would daydream of being a dive pro. Soon enough, this dream would come true as I took a trip to the Philippines and qualified as a Divemaster. I had found my calling and had never felt happier. Over the next five years I lived and worked as a dive instructor in the Philippines, Bali and Saint Lucia. I experienced some of the best diving in the world - it was a life-affirming time which radically changed my outlook and path.




Diving

I believe diving is much more akin to meditation than a sport. Being underwater is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in a different world and get close to some fantastic wildlife. The ocean drew me in first, far before photography, from marathon childhood snorkel sessions to abandoning a conventional career path for life as a dive professional, and then underwater photographer. Submerged is when I feel most at ease, filled with immense calm, and wonder at the life below. It’s a hard feeling to convey in words, and taking up photography was a way of transmitting the beauty of the marine world where words failed.


Photography

Photography honed my appreciation of beauty, slowing me down to the point where I’ll happily spend hours observing a single fish. The most human reaction to beauty is to want to share it with others, and I’m lucky to share this passion and career with my wife, Jade. To adequately translate these feelings of wonder, technical knowledge was required to create some semblance of what my naked eye witnessed, through the camera. Initially I focussed on freezing moments, but as time went on, experimented more and more with slow frames, capturing motion underwater. For me, nature is art, and the ultimate ambition is to create imagery which embraces the beauty and art inherent to nature. Using motion captures the dynamism of life underwater, and creates separation between a beautiful subject and its background.

Ocean Challenges

Earth, as Arthur C. Clarke pointed out, is an unusual choice of name for our home planet, as Ocean would be far more befitting. Life, both on Earth and in water, perpetually moves forward, whether it be for better or worse, and photography can create the illusion of ever-present beauty. Even on a heavily dilapidated reef, a photographer can still showcase that one small corner of exception. For all the beautiful images, remember they represent only one part of reality. The ocean is at its most precarious tipping point in human history, with threats from over-fishing, pollution, habitat destruction, and global climate change placing it under immense strain. To prevent it from buckling, it’s time we changed our habits and started taking better care of the greatest presence on our planet.

To speak more with Henley about engaging his services, please contact:

thephotographer@henleyspiers.com 

 Selected Media Coverage

Qualifications:

  • PADI IDC Staff Instructor

  • TDI Trimix Diver

  • TDI Advanced Wreck

  • AIDA 2* Freediver

  • Technical Rebreather (Pelagian unit)

  • RYA Yachtmaster Offshore