One Way

The essence of "free" in freediving goes beyond physical performance—it captures an emotional, almost intangible feeling that many people spend their whole lives searching for. It’s not something you can force; you have to embrace it when the moment presents itself. That feeling is what pushes people to achieve things they never thought possible, break personal limits, and experience a sense of accomplishment that’s entirely their own. I created this photograph with one of the world’s top freediving women wearing a monofin because I believe the fluidity of a monofin performance is the purest expression of freediving—gliding through the water like a dolphin. When perfected, the diver’s movement becomes so streamlined that it almost mirrors the hydrodynamics of a cetacean. I was also holding my breath, freediving alongside the athlete, as we worked together to capture the art of freediving in its rawest form. This was shot at Dean’s Blue Hole, where a natural sloping field of sand runs from the beach down to the edge of the blue hole, which drops to over 600 feet. Because the water here starts so shallow and the hole is protected in a bay, the surface is usually calm. That calmness lets sunlight cut through easily, casting diamond-shaped reflections onto the sand below — almost like tiny glistening gems, or grains of sand catching light along the shore. Between the monofin’s elegant motion, the calm, clear Bahamian water, and the mirrored surface above, this image is a reflection of the clarity and peace we freedivers feel when moving weightlessly on a single breath.