Real danger is something we seldom experience in the modern world, yet fear is deep at the core of our being. Jean-Marie Ghislain overcame his fear of water by learning to swim with sharks. By confronting his emotional responses to these graceful predators, he sought to recover from personal trauma, asking himself: “Can beauty cure fear?”. Working entirely with natural light and a focal length as close as possible to that of the human eye, he brings these magnificent creatures closer to us than most could ever dare. The tiniest mark and scar is rendered so clearly that we feel we could reach out and touch them. By sharing his profoundly personal experience with sharks, Jean-Marie Ghislain captures the character and beauty of these exceptional creatures, so often maligned or threatened, and urges us to learn to share our oceans with a new sense of respect and even love. At the end of the book, the pictures are reproduced at thumbnail size with extensive entries, containing scientific information on the featured sharks and where, when and why they were photographed.

Edition: 2014