A face in the dark

摘要

It's looking at you, with its mouth slightly open. ForJean-Marie Ghislain, meeting this thresher shark was a moving experience, because it is a timid and distant animal. Not, perhaps, the impression that most of us would form if we came face to face with a 3-metre shark. Especially one that uses an incredible elongated tail as a whip to stun its prey before eating it. But Ghislain is on a mission to rehabilitate the image of sharks. He set up Shark Revolution, a non-profit organisation aimed at educating people on the plight of sharks around the world. This shot was taken in Malapascua in the Philippines, a site renowned for encounters with threshers. He shoots in black and white when the conditions would otherwise make the image saturated with blues. "This meeting touched me deeply," Ghislain writes in his new book. Shark: Fear and beauty. "Its gaze is reminiscent of a frightened animal and its wide eyes reinforce the impression that you are looking at a cartoon character."