Jump in with both feet and go on an adventure with Richard Salas and experience the underside
of the Pacific Islands of the Americas. Watch as 22-foot whale sharks swim gingerly along, slurping
up microscopic plankton to fill their enormous bellies. Get up close and personal with massive bait-balls
of big-eyed scad as they swirl in the afternoon heat while being dive-bombed by jack mackerel in a
ravenous feeding frenzy. And experience 700 pound sea lions frolicking under a noon day sun.
The Sea of Light Collection, a 3 book underwater classic from the Equator to Alaska is 4,200 miles
of underwater photographs. Richard says “I am a human being in love with my fellow water beings,
and as I visit their world and record bits and pieces of their lives, I feel honored. I am the uninvited guest
dropping in on their day-to-day lives, the neoprene-clad invader.” As Tim Means (owner and founder of
Baja Expeditions) puts it, Richard’s work is not a document of “…alien invertebrates or scientific
specimens, but portraits – windows into personalities. Illuminated as equal beings, his subjects return the
camera’s gaze with surprising wonder and curiosity, and when we come face to face with these distant
relatives - what Richard calls our 'underwater family' - a profound connection takes place."
“While I realize that, as an individual, I have never been more than a drop of water in the face of the
vastness of the ocean, I have also seen that, as a species, humanity’s collective weight is having a
profound impact on its watery resources. So, with my lights and with patience, I create dimensionality in
my photographs of these critters so that they leap off the page to greet the viewer. I am committed to
using my art and technique to spark in others both a reverence and a sense of responsibility for the
ocean and its creatures. Through photography I expose viewers to new ways of connecting to the
underwater world and its inhabitants so that they, like me, may feel the heartbeat of our precious sea life.” –Richard Salas