As a former Navy Diver and active Commercial Diver, I have lived and worked beneath the surface of the sea—a place few people truly understand, yet one that sustains life on Earth. My photography is a reflection of that submerged world: stark, authentic, and unapologetically human.
I shoot exclusively in black and white, not for nostalgia, but for truth. Monochrome removes distraction; it sharpens the focus on form, gesture, grit, and emotion. I am not interested in aestheticizing commercial diving—I am documenting it from within. Every image I create is shaped by experience: welding in zero visibility, feeling the crush of pressure at depth, navigating the silence and solitude that defines the life of a diver.
My ongoing series, Man in the Sea, is a photographic exploration of the men and women who immerse themselves underwater—whether through hardhat diving or free diving. It is both a tribute to their physical endurance and a meditation on the mental clarity demanded by the deep. Through this work, I seek to humanize a profession often misunderstood or unseen, capturing both its danger and its quiet poetry.
I photograph not to perform, but to preserve. These images are records—of labor, isolation, tradition, and the raw connection between human and ocean. My aim is not to romanticize diving, but to give it a voice.
—Austin Leathers
As a former Navy Diver and active Commercial Diver, I have lived and worked beneath the surface of the sea—a place few people truly understand, yet one that sustains life on Earth. My photography is a reflection of that submerged world: stark, authentic, and unapologetically human.
I shoot exclusively in black and white, not for nostalgia, but for truth. Monochrome removes distraction; it sharpens the focus on form, gesture, grit, and emotion. I am not interested in aestheticizing commercial diving—I am documenting it from within. Every image I create is shaped by experience: welding in zero visibility, feeling the crush of pressure at depth, navigating the silence and solitude that defines the life of a diver.
My ongoing series, Man in the Sea, is a photographic exploration of the men and women who immerse themselves underwater—whether through hardhat diving or free diving. It is both a tribute to their physical endurance and a meditation on the mental clarity demanded by the deep. Through this work, I seek to humanize a profession often misunderstood or unseen, capturing both its danger and its quiet poetry.
I photograph not to perform, but to preserve. These images are records—of labor, isolation, tradition, and the raw connection between human and ocean. My aim is not to romanticize diving, but to give it a voice.
—Austin Leathers