Award-winning underwater photographer Matty Smith talks to ONBOARDMagazine on patience, polar expeditions and discovering the world’s last great frontiersWords: James Evans
It’s all about time in the water,” says Matty Smith. “You can’t control nature. You’ve just got to be in the right place at the right time.”It is a deceptively simple philosophy, but one that has carried Smith to the very surface of underwater photography (and he’s pretty handy on dry land too). Earlier this year, the Yorkshire-born snapper was named Underwater Photographer of the Year, triumphing over almost 8,000 entries from snappers around the globe. His winning image, elephant seal pups taking tentative first steps towards independence in the Falkland Islands, was, as all the best photos are, a chance moment that no amount of planning could ever truly manufacture.For Smith, however, the award represents something far bigger than a single photograph. It is recognition of a lifetime – he’s just passed his half-century – spent chasing the world’s wildest oceans.“I’ve always been obsessed with the sea,” he says.
“As a kid we’d go on family holidays to France and Spain, and I was snorkelling as soon as I could swim. Then I got really into fishing – not to eat fish, but just because I loved being around the water, catching them, photographing them and putting them back.” Those early fascinations gradually evolved into surfing. Living in the UK, Smith would drive thousands of miles around Britain’s coastline in search of waves, before eventually emigrating to Australia, where the Pacific Ocean became both his workplace and his playground.Photography arrived almost by accident. “I started buying proper cameras to document my surf trips,” he recalls. “However, after a while I realised I wasn’t concentrating on the surfers anymore. I was chasing pods of dolphins, jellyfish and turtles instead. It just evolved naturally into wildlife photography.” That instinct to follow curiosity rather than convention has shaped every stage of his career.
Today, Smith’s photographs appear in leading international publications, while his workshops and expeditions take photographers into some of the most remote marine environments on Earth. Yet despite the accolades, he speaks less about technical perfection than he does about patience.Nature, he insists, cannot be rushed. The award-winning elephant seal image is a perfect example. “I’d literally just arrived on Sea Lion Island,” he explains. “We’d put our bags in the guest house and gone for a little walk around before sunset. I found this amazing rock pool full of elephant seal pups that had just been weaned.”The young seals, abandoned by their mothers and learning to swim for the first time, displayed none of the caution usually associated with wild animals. “They’re incredibly curious,” Smith says. “They’re almost looking for their mum, so when you get close they come over to you.”Realising the light was fading fast, Smith sprinted back to the guesthouse, hurriedly assembled his underwater camera equipment and returned to the pool. “I laid down in the water and all the pups just climbed all over me. I became part of the group. I managed to shoot a couple of dozen frames before the light disappeared, and one of them turned out to be the winning image.”
WE CAN SHOOT AT SUNRISE, SUNSET, WHENEVER THE WILDLIFE IS ACTIVE. SO THAT’S WHERE THE FREEDOM COMES FROM – IT’S A MUCH MORE NATURAL WAY OF CAPTURING WILDLIFE
There is no sense of bravado in the story. Instead, Smittalks about preparation, instinct and simply recognising an opportunity when it appears. “You’ve travelled halfway around the world with all your equipment,” he says. “There’s hard work involved in getting there, but ultimately you’ve still got to be ready when nature gives you those few special moments.”Even then, certainty remains elusive. “You never really know until you get the images onto the laptop. Sometimes something looks amazing on the back of the camera, then you see it’s just slightly soft or slightly out of focus. Other times you open the files and realise you’ve got something really special.”Smith’s ability to recognise those moments has become the foundation of a career built around exploration rather than simply photography. Alongside expedition leader Scott Portelli, he now co-runs Wild Planet Expeditions, a company offering high-ticket immersive photographic adventures aboard expedition yachts in some of the most extraordinary places on Earth.Their destinations include Antarctica, South Georgia, the Falkland Islands and, in future, Greenland and Baffin Island.Unlike traditional polar cruise ships, their voyages are intentionally small. “We wanted it to feel more like being on expedition with National Geographic or the BBC,” Smith explains.Large cruise vessels, he says, often operate to rigid schedules, allowing little time for photographers to truly immerse themselves in a location. “They might let you swim with leopard seals for half an hour, but that’s about it.
Ultimately, they’re on a timetable and they’ve got another landing to make tomorrow.” A yacht changes everything. “If we find an incredible bay with penguins, leopard seals and beautiful ice formations, we can just stay there for two or three days. We can shoot at sunrise, sunset, whenever the wildlife is active. So that’s where the freedom comes from – it’s a much more natural way of looking at and capturing wildlife… it’s how it should be done.”It is an approach that reflects Smith’s broader philosophy. Photography is not about ticking destinations off a list; more, experiencing a place properly.The expeditions have quickly developed a loyal following, attracting everyone from accomplished photographers to adventurous travellers fulfilling lifelong ambitions.“They’re not cheap trips,” Smith admits, “but they’re immersive. You’re sailing across the Drake Passage, living aboard a 60ft yacht and exploring some of the most remote places on Earth.”Remarkably, guests from just three expeditions have already accumulated 13 international photography awards between them. For Smith, that success validates the concept. “We’re getting people into the right locations and giving them the opportunity to create photographs they’ve dreamed about for years.”It backs up the ideas reality that, sometimes, great photography has little to do with cameras. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in gear,” he says. “People spend fortunes on cameras and lenses, then can’t afford to travel anywhere to use them.”His recommendation is refreshingly straightforward. “You don’t need the best gear. You need to be in the right place.”
He recalls one guest arriving in Antarctica armed not only with a DSLR, but with disposable cameras and an instant Polaroid.During an extraordinary humpback whale feeding event, professional photographers unleashed thousands of pounds worth of equipment while a drone buzzed overhead recording the spectacle. Then came the unmistakable sound beside him. “All I heard was the Polaroid ejecting.” Smith laughs at the memory. “It was the best shot any of us got on the day. It just proves you don’t always need the latest equipment. Modern cameras make life easier, of course, but I’d always tell people to save some of that budget for travelling somewhere incredible instead.”Like many creative professionals, Smith has watched artificial intelligence transform the visual landscape. While he remains confident authentic photography will endure, he admits the changes can sometimes be frustrating. “The BBC recently shared one of my great white shark photographs,” he says. “I’d spent three years developing the equipment and techniques to make that image possible.”Instead of celebrating the achievement, many online comments dismissed it as AI-generated. “It’s heartbreaking sometimes,” he admits. “People have become desensitised to beautiful imagery because they’re surrounded by AI pictures all the time.”
His own business, fortunately, relies less on selling photographs than creating experiences After all, as both engineer and photographer, Smith still enjoys solving technical challenges, often designing specialist equipment himself to achieve images others might consider impossible. Yet technology remains firmly secondary to experience. “It’s about what’s in front of the camera – it has to be.”As for the future, Wild Planet Expeditions continues to expand. Greenland, Baffin Island and encounters with narwhals and polar bears are already being planned, opening yet more untouched corners of the planet to adventurous travellers.For Smith, the appeal remains exactly the same as it was when he first pulled on a snorkel as a child. “They are precious places where life evolves and grows in ways so hidden but so real. To be able to go down there and capture that is a real privilege.”
