Sometimes the most beautiful things come from the darkness. For Illawarra photographer and videographer Ben Bagley, this is true both personally and professionally. After breaking his back a few years ago, Ben found himself drawn to the ocean to help ease his pain. In so doing, he was able to turn his lifelong passion into a career, to advocate for the ocean and all its inhabitants and to become a master at using natural light to create incredible images.

Ben has always had an eye for photography, so much so that he was the designated family photographer. But it wasn’t until his injury and discovering that traditional medicine didn’t help ease his pain, that he sought out swimming.

“Being obsessed with the ocean it was hard to stay away from it anyway," he said. "I couldn’t surf, I couldn’t really dive or wear any of my heavy gear or things like that and it started off just swimming and I found it gave me more and more relief from the pain.”

It also offered the opportunity to combine his love for the ocean with his love for photography. 

“I started to take my passion for photography into the water, which is not something I’d ever really thought of doing before then,” he said. 

Today, Ben approaches his work, whether it be photographing spotted jellyfish suspended in zooplankton, playful seals or apex predators such as white sharks, with a light touch, literally.

“Primarily I like to free dive. I like to give the animal my realest version while trying to capture the realest version of them … I feel like it shows some level of respect in that I’m just a visitor for a breath at a time while hoping to share a few moments with them if and when I can.”

While choosing free diving over scuba diving has its own unique challenges, Ben also prefers to use natural light rather than artificial strobe lighting, saying: “I’ve kind of always preferred to work with natural light, to work with what Mother Nature gives me and make what I can out of it. It’s really forced me to be better at what I do, working with uncontrollable situations … So I think it works well to better myself instead of just hoping the light is going to be perfect and waiting for that perfect moment, you try and make something perfect out of nothing.”

In a career filled with magical moments such as finding himself unexpectedly face to face with a Southern Right Whale or diving with seals, the "staffies of the sea”, Ben would be forgiven for not being able to pinpoint one big moment. But instead it turns out every moment is a highlight. 

“I think the highlight of my career so far is that I was able to create a career in something that I’m so passionate about, from something that was so devastating and life changing. Just the fact that it’s real is probably the highlight I think. Otherwise I get a highlight every single time I get to share more than a second with any beautiful animal in the ocean.”

Visit Ben’s Instagram for a unique perspective on our oceans.

For print enquiries, head to benbagley.darkroom.com/ or message Ben directly via instagram.