Interview with Underwater Photographer of the Year 2024 Wreck's Category Winner Martin Broen

Martin has been very successful in a number of underwater photography competitions over the past several years. His victories span across various categories including Black & White, Wide Angle, Wreck and Cave photography. His latest triumph includes winning 1st Place in the Wreck category of this years Underwater Photographer of the Year competition. We caught up with Martin to ask him about his photography style, his inspiration and about his winning shot.

IS: You have quite the reputation for technical underwater photos and cave exploration. When shooting these types of images, are you planning the images out in your mind before you take them?

MB: I live in New York and don’t manage to dive as often as I wish, and do plan in my head, photos and new techniques I will like to try in my next dive, looking for images or videos of the sites and learning techniques from other photographers that may not be underwater. But as I do enjoy being surprised by a new animal or environment, I prioritize visiting new sites or new caves rather than coming back to a site to do a planned shot. Most of the cave shots I have taken, in over 250 Cenotes, are on my way out of a cave that I dove for the first time.

IS: Please tell us a little about your philosophy towards underwater photography. What excites you in underwater photos?

MB: I have been diving for 30 years, and I love having intense interactions with nature and the unique sense of discovery that the underwater world offers with its incredible biodiversity. Such a different environment than our everyday life filled with amazing experiences and a wide range of photographic opportunities. My philosophy is grounded in experimentation and exploration, trying always different techniques that will enhance that feeling of discovery combined with a sense of purpose and responsibility towards exposing these amazing ecosystems to the public to help protect them.

IS: What about your past and background has led you to think in this way?

MB: While I love diving and photography, my core passion and day job is Industrial Design and Innovation, with over 130 innovation patents and hundreds of products in the market, from a humble Scotch Tape dispenser to wind turbines, reusable vessels, tennis racquets, new sustainable business models or medical equipment. You most likely have a product in your house which I designed and you don’t know it!

At the core of it is the Design Thinking process, the learning, experimentation and ideation, which I bring back into my photography. I’m constantly thinking what can I do differently. I design and 3D print accessories and try new techniques in almost every dive. From which most of those experiments will fail, but will allow me to learn something new. A methodology that in design we call Make-to-Learn approach. You go in it knowing that it may not work but you may discover something in the process. You don’t get frustrated with that failure, but instead you get to enjoy the journey!

IS: You have been successful in my different types of photo competitions over recent years. Can you give our readers any advice on how you select the right images for competitions?

MB: As experimentation is at the core of my approach, I do enjoy learning techniques from different photographic areas, from landscape panoramas or indoor vertoramas to super microscope macro, from narrow-band deep-space astrophotography to photographing in infra-red or ultra-violet spectrums or photogrammetry. Each field of photography will give you a new learning that you can cross-pollinate back into underwater photography. And that’s at the core of why I managed to successfully place in many competitions. I do read the rules, and I participate with non-traditional photography styles which while still compliant do push outside of the traditional box.

The advice is not to participate in a competition to win, do it to challenge yourself, to learn and improve.

IS: Please tell us a little bit about the photo and the techniques you used in the UPY category win?

MB: This photo was taken in the Underwater Military Museum in Aqaba, Jordan during an underwater competition. A wreck playground with a full portfolio of tanks, anti-aircraft cannons, armored cars and helicopters arranged in military formation, at a depth range of 15 to 28m [approximately 50 to 90 feet].

As it was my first live underwater competition, I did my research and I thought about some potential shots. Among them was shooting two UK-built Chieftain main battle tanks from below, having their 120mm guns open almost symmetrically sticking out of their bodies. To my surprise, when I went down to do the shot, I realized that there was an ambulance blocking the view to the tanks, and the shot was not meaningful from above it. After my disappointment faded away, I went back to my design thinking approach and thought on what could I do to solve the problem, so I tried an unconventional panoramic technique I learned from shooting vertoramas inside buildings and churches. Doing a 6-shot panorama at the end of the ambulance that was way inside the space of the 120mm tank cannons, covering a 220 degree angle and forcing myself to pivot at the no-parallax-point of the lens to allow proper stitching, and in that way recreating a virtual focus point that was further back into the occupied space while getting a dramatic perspective of the cannons. It was the first time I tried that technique underwater and to my surprise it did work out quite well. To complete the composition, I had my trusted dive buddy between the tanks shining the lights towards me to force a central point of attention and enhanced symmetry, while capturing the buoy on the left to playfully disrupt that symmetry and provide richness to the image.

IS: In most of your wreck images, including the winning UPY shot, you have a very unique post processing style where you desaturate the water. Can you describe the technique you use and how you came up with it?

MB: When I start processing an image, I don’t have a pre-concept of where it should go. I don’t use presets and I don’t save my process. I face each edit wondering where it will take me. In the case of shipwrecks, I do care about the composition first, leaving space and providing direction, but then I focus on textures and rusty colors. I make them the heroes of the image, and that’s why you see me desaturating the water to bring the attention back to the wreck.

IS: After the success you have had with a very wide range of techniques and photography types, what’s next on your underwater photography journey?

MB: I do get excited about the next trip and the next technique I will learn and try, despite not knowing which they are, but I do have the next 8 trips planned using every minute of my vacation allowance (some of the trips including with Byron and Andy). The constant learning of photo techniques always go hand-in-hand with the diving skills. I’m finishing my CCR MOD 3 and getting deeper in the water and in the cave, allowing me to reach new and more challenging photo opportunities in a safe and controlled way. But now part of my focus is on supporting conservation and exploration initiatives, helping document and preserve species and ecosystems. My first book, “Light in the Underworld”, showcasing the body of work I have done in the Cenotes of Mexico is coming out in September, using photography to get people in love with that environment and help preserve an incredible ecosystem that few people know exists.

IS: What are the top three tips you could give any photographer to help them develop?

MB: Enjoy the photographic discovery process more than the destination. Give yourself space to try new things and fail. Be curious and get out of your comfort zone. Do it surrounded by friends and have fun. Reach out to other photographers and share your tips and techniques. Develop a sense of purpose and protection of the marine environment, partner with other photographers, explorers, conservationists and scientists to support research and create awareness for this majestic planet.