featured photographer

Matt Kleczkowski

Matt.Kleczkowski BSc(Mar.Sci).Hons I was six years old when I first put on a mask and began exploring the ocean. It was love at first immersion. I was fascinated by the colours and forms of the creatures I was seeing underwater. I didn’t know exactly what a marine biologist was back then but I knew immediately I wanted to learn about the animals I was seeing. This early fascination led me to university where I completed a Marine Science degree, followed by Honours in Marine Biology. Since graduating in 2003 I have been employed as a marine scientist which has been both fascinating and enlightening. As a freelance photographer this profession has also been agonising owing o the fact that I can’t always have my beloved cameras with me while working underwater! What fascinates me most about the ocean is the hierarchy of processes and interactions that occur at so many scales in space as well as over time. A naturally sustaining symphony of interactions that produce so many fascinating life forms each with its own suite of biological solutions to deal with the often harsh environments they inhabit. It is these solutions or adaptations that produce the colours, shapes, and behaviours that I love to photograph. The ocean is a place characterised by patterns within patterns. For example a school of several hundred beautifully marked pink snapper gathering to spawn in a protected embayment each year, at the exact spot, at the exact time, on the same moon phase. .. A school of nervous baitfish under predatory attack, bathed in an indigo blue light, expanding and contracting as though they were one organism avoiding the predator... Or perhaps even the patterns on the scales of the predatory fish themselves, allowing them to blend into their environment, or instead stand out from the crowd to attract a mate. I hope you enjoy some of my ocean abstracts in this gallery.

Phone:0428 508 979
Email:matt_k@mscience.net.au

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Galleries by Matt Kleczkowski