© Karen Glaser

Photographer Karen Glaser traveled to remote parts of the Pacific Ocean for her self-motivated series Dark Sharks. Using her Nikonos V camera, a special underwater camera, Glaser settled herself behind rocks at the bottom of the ocean to watch the underwater world unfold in front of her. Using only the dim natural light that is available underwater, Glaser made these unusual images in an ocean cleaning station where small fish rid the sharks of parasites and other harmful bacteria. While capturing the beauty of these animals, Glaser also hopes to bring attention to their risk of extinction. “Sharks and rays have been swimming on this Earth for eons,” Glaser says on her website. “These creatures are closely related and prehistoric, so are the waters in which they swim. However, my locations, in Pacific waters off the Americas, though remote, are deeply affected by many modern threats including: over fishing, illegal fishing, and shark fining. The shark population is plummeting and rays are following suit. It is not inconceivable to think they might follow the dinosaur into extinction.” (more…)

All photos © Karen Glaser

Karen Glaser, an experienced diver and photographer, takes us on a visual journey through Florida’s intricate underwater ecosystems. She captures the freshwater marshes, mangrove forests and acres of primeval swamp. Glaser’s Underwater images are published in the May/June 2010 issue of Orion, a twenty-eight-year-old bimonthly concerned with nature, culture, and everything in between. As stated in Orion, “Her landscape photography is shot underwater, capturing the unique natural light and life of this unfamiliar world. The mud and muck that is common to these waters may cloud their clarity, but it is their lifeblood—as Glaser describes it, ‘the living and breathing matter that seasons the soup and reflects, refracts, and bends the light to create its complexity.’ ” To see more from Karen Glaser’s project click here to view the audio visual slideshow.

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