1977-2021 44 years of excellence 300 solo exhibitions since 1977 

July 10th: Ocean Geographic Pictures of the Year 2020 Pascal Award

I’ve been honored for the second year to have the Ocean Geographic Pictures of the year naming one of the categorie THE PASCAL LECOCQ AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT, along side the legendaries Ernie Brooks , David Doubilet, Ron and Valerie Taylor, Stephen Frink , Alex Mustard, Michael Aw and others.
The Creative Vision – the Pascal Lecocq Award for Outstanding Achievement – looked for unique, surprising, artistic interpretations of the ocean (intertidal or from the surface, abstract or ambiguous, but has to be executed to exacting photographic techniques). We looked for a distinct, well thought out process, originality and an attempt to convey a greater understanding of our watery planet.
The competition is host by the Australian magazine Ocean Geographic .

Thanks Michael Aw, Wildlife photographer, Author, Founder Ocean Geographic, Senior Fellow International League of Conservation Photographers, Fellow – Explorers Club, www.michaelaw.com. Ocean Geographic magazine (Australia) encourages deeper appreciation of the beauty and the fragility of our ocean planet with the use of the finest imageries and passionate essays of the sea.

Last years results.

Winner CV175

I imagine this amazing picture 20 or 30 feet long where you could immerse yourself in a beautiful universe that transcribes our beloved underwater world, its fragility and how we should stand for to keep it alive. I figure that the composition and the technique behind the picture have been mastered by the landscape painter… I mean the talented photographer here ! Today, I think Big, I think big is worth to praise when it is well composed and lighten, focused, and detailed as if you where on site soaring like the turtle.

Suggestion. Composition is my obsession and I would have moved the central coral from the axis (to the golden section location on the right), even I’m sure the intention was to focus the viewer on the middle, lightly compensated by the dynamic position of the turtle.

Runner up CV 184

Going thru the mirror, from Lewis Carroll to the French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, is always a great metaphor of the creativity, to escape the real, even underwater world is real. Staging and creating scenes underwater are still  a powerful challenge for the imagination and the realization, particularly when you go through the frame…

Suggestion. Talking about frame, I would have rotated a bit the horizon (vertical!) line to a straighter direction.

Special honourable mention CV158

I’m just in awe about the skill used to create such a piece of art and

I can’t get how this artwork was done (filters? lens effects?). That is the kind of mystery that makes the difference between a snapshot with your disposable cam and a fine art photography.

Honourable mention CV202

Humoristic shot got by the photographer, how the cam captures the subject !!!

Suggestion: would have need a better framing of top of the picture.

Honourable mention CV197

This one is the best of two submissions by the same photographer, I figure,  because it’s more than a double exposure without much meaning. Here the model almost holds the reef in “her right hand” bringing herself- her mind- underwater…

Suggestion: I remember my first drawing lesson… “leave borders around the subject” so I would have found this poetic picture perfect with the top of her head and the end of the bang inside the framing.

May 24th THE PASCAL LECOCQ AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT about CREATIVE VISION 2020

This is the time of the year Michael Aw puts me under pressure since 2016 as juror for the Ocean Geographic Pictures of the Year Awards (http://ogpicoty.ogsociety.org) to choose between amazing pictures winner and runners up for THE PASCAL LECOCQ AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT about CREATIVE VISION, and honors me to join legendery jurors such as Ernie Brooks , David Doubilet, Jennifer Hayes, Eric Bettens Composer, Stan Waterman ,Valerie Taylor, Stephen Frink , Alex Mustard and others.. Coming soon… Pic from last year winner Marc Henauer: “”Thinking of” creative vision… our winner had a creative vision, an idea he wanted to paint with the medium he used the best: underwater photography. He found the location, set the scene, used an inspirational lighting and shot the performance of the free diver. The homage to Rodin’s “Thinker” lets us think of what the inspirational light tells to the character: would it be that we need to respect Mother Nature and Mare Nostrum ?” Pascal Lecocq 2019

previous winners 2019- http://ogpicoty.ogsociety.org/creative-vision-winners-2018-2019/