Alex Voyer | Photographer | Ocean Adventurer
Alex has a passion for adventure that is taking him around the globe searching out personal stories from the ocean.
“My name is Alex Voyer, I am 41, and a water photographer mainly based between France and my sailboat Diatomée. I have been a Freediving instructor for a dozen years, but also swimming in open and cold water. These passions led me to take photos underwater without using air tanks, exploring the oceans from the poles to the tropics.”
What's a typical day like for you?
Waking up on my sailing boat (maybe with a little hang-over) having a morning swim before breakfast, fixing a couple of problems on the boat, then finding a place to free dive or to sail or to make any photos... Or it could be more or less the same during an expedition in Antarctica, or seeing my friends in Paris after 2 expressos at the bar behind my flat.
What are the fondest memories from your upbringing that you feel impacted your life choices and lifestyle today?
When I was young, I was living on the Pacific ocean shore, and I swam before walking... I was always very interested by the fishies and the water animals, so my passion for the oceans probably came from this period.
What/who currently inspires you?
Anyone who is involved in conservation in any way, I am very far away to be an ecologist ambassador today, as I travel so much... So I will never tell anybody what is good or not, but now, living most of my time on a sailing boat reminds me daily about sustainability. About photography, I feel very inspired about surf photographers, they have an incredible way to re-invent the way of showing this sport! Underwater photography is also changing now that the material becomes less expensive and allows younger people to express themselves, but it took a lot of time to change this...
What path did you choose after leaving school?
I choose to work in post-production sound-studios; I love the sound universe, and left this business after working for 15 years.
What have been the biggest challenges you've had to overcome?
Changing my life 2 years ago, with my girlfriend Marianne, buying a sailing boat (I didn't know how to sail), and leaving my Parisian life...
What would you most like to change in the world/environment?
So many things, but before anything, I would just love that people understand how is our environment today, just understanding the scientific facts, it would be a great job... I can see so many climate declines, it really scares me a lot.
What do you value most in life?
Kindness.
Are there any books/documentaries that have guided your thinking?
Cousteau Films of course! Then The Aquatic life :-)
What brings you the most joy?
A day without anything to fix on Diatomée, and probably spending time with my friends.
Alex’s Story onboard Diatomée.
A beautiful 18 metre aluminium sailboat from the 1980s.
“We are Marianne Aventurier and Alex Voyer, we are 40 years old, we are passionate about marine life, freediving instructors, extreme-swimmers, and now apprentices sailors...
A year ago, when we decided to live only with underwater image aboard a sailboat, we barely knew how to navigate, we had never changed an oil filter, nor even belt of an alternator. It took us about a year to learn all this with the help of a friend, captain by profession: Gilles Rigaud, a veteran who has traveled all the oceans for 30 years and who joined us for a meticulous apprenticeship of life on a sailboat.
After crossing the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, we have been sailing in the Caribbean for a year. From the Grenadines Islands to the Bahamas, the adventure began by inviting artists, photographers and scientists onboard (27MM, Meaghan Ogilvie, Frédéric Buyle and Fabrice Schnoeler) who made us discover with their particular look and their experience, various facets of ecosystems that we have been able to cross.
The idea is to invite personalities onboard who have particular attachment to water, to create a collective to develop projects rich in challenges, learning and artistic creations.
We want to limit our impact and develop this concept by traveling at the speed of the wind, by diving without heavy equipment or being too noisy: to make us the privileged witnesses of a world where many things remain to be discovered.”
This boat is now placed in associative form and we wish to develop 4 axes for the same purpose, that of raising awareness about the conservation of the oceans:
First of all an artistic axis, as an underwater photographer, it seems to me essential to sublimate the richness of the ocean and to participate at best in our desire to protect it.
A pedagogical axis, led directly by Marianne who communicates directly with 2 classes of primary schools in Paris, exchanges are made live from our expeditions, and during interventions to each of our returns to France.
A sporting axis; we are both swimmers and snorkel instructors, sport is an integral part of our lives and it seems essential to us to take up sporting challenges with the athletes who wish to get involved in the adventure.
A scientific axis: whether trying to do some participatory science or inviting scientists aboard, it is important for us to try to contribute, even very humbly, to the research that can take shape aboard a sailboat.’
