James Matthews | Molecular Biologist | Marine Photographer | Dive Master

James Matthews is a London based underwater photographer, molecular biologist graduate, and PADI Divemaster. At just 23 years-old he has travelled the world, volunteering in places like Indonesia, Cuba and Kenya.

While working with Operation Wallacea as a research assistant and Divemaster, he discovered his love for photography and the underwater world. There he decided that working alongside scientists and helping to communicate their work was what made him happiest. With his beautiful imagery, James hopes to educate and inspire the public to protect our fragile marine environment.

Currently, James spends a few months every year on expedition in Indonesia with Operation Wallacea, while at home in central London he works as an assistant manager for Ocean Leisure.

“Visual storytelling can be an incredibly powerful and accessible tool for the protection of vulnerable species and habitats, especially in the hands of someone with both scientific knowledge and passion for the subject.”

Amphiprion ocellaris
The larger fish is a female and the smaller fish is a male, if something happens to the female, the male can actually switch genders, meaning Finding Nemo would have turned out a bit differently if they’d stayed scientifically accurate...

What is a typical day like for you?

Obviously the pandemic and subsequent lockdown has majorly impacted things but generally there are two sorts of days: those when I am in London and those when I am on expedition. While working in London, I cycle to and from work and work full time. After finishing work at 7 pm I generally either go climbing at the local indoor climbing gym, teach a tutoring session or teach scuba diving as a Divemaster with Oyster Divers at an indoor pool in Soho on Tuesday Nights. When on an expedition in Wakatobi, Indonesia, we conduct two scientific dives each morning, at 7 am and 11 am. These dives consist of stereo-video surveys, macroinvertebrate belt transects and benthic video transects. After lunch, we then spend the afternoon in a hut by the beach, combing through data, identifying species and recording our analysis. Then, at about 6 pm we all head down the beach to our local friend Ola’s for a cold Bintang and to watch the sunset before getting an early night ready for the next day’s dives.

A Bigfin Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis lessoniana) hangs motionless, pulsing, trance-like in the gloom.

What are the fondest memories from your upbringing that you feel impacted your life choices and lifestyle today?

I remember snorkelling with my dad and spending lots of time in and around the ocean on yachts with him. I was lucky enough to travel relatively extensively at a young age and loved biology, I would always be that kid that knew all about the animals and plants we were seeing. Certainly learning to scuba dive very young helped influence my decision to make diving a big part of my life. I was so young when I first put a scuba tank on that I kept flipping upside down in the water because it was heavier than I was!

What/who currently inspires you?

I feel incredibly inspired by influential conservation storytellers such as Paul Nicklen, Christina Mittermeier and Andy Mann to name a few, as their work with Sea Legacy not only uses beautiful videography but also shows the need to protect vulnerable ocean ecosystems. The work of the NatGeo Pristine Seas team, led by Professor Enric Sala is also inspiring to me, as they keep the spirit of adventure alive while also engendering real and lasting change in the areas they visit by working alongside local and national authorities. Finally, I have always been interested in mountain sports such as mountain biking, skiing/snowboarding and climbing and as such, some of the athletes and photographers working in those fields inspire me too, such as Jimmy Chin, Renan Ozturk and Chris Burkard.

Spot Fin Lionfish - Pterois antennata

What path did you choose after leaving school? 

After school, I still had a strong interest to pursue academic study. I moved straight into a degree in biochemistry at University College London, eventually graduating in Molecular biology in 2018. While I volunteered at a marine conservation base in Cuba and at an elephant sanctuary in Kenya in 2015, those interests remained on the back burner as I worked towards the degree. Since graduating, I took a year to pursue some of the jobs that I’d wanted to do since I was young, such as working a ski season in the Alps and also attaining my divemaster and working as a marine research assistant in Indonesia. Since the divemaster particularly I have structured my work life around facilitating the scientific diving as much as possible, although it must be said that COVID put a bit of a spanner in the works this year, as I was due to be out in Indonesia in a reef monitoring team this summer.

This crocodile fish (Cymbacephalus beauforti) is a well camouflaged ambush predator that waits on the ocean floor for unsuspecting fish.

What have been the biggest challenges you've had to overcome? 

My biggest personal challenge was the loss of my father at a relatively young age. He and his best friend died in a helicopter crash when I was 7 and that definitely affected my outlook on life growing up. Although it doesn’t necessarily compare, I also suffered from mental health issues during the middle of my degree that led to me isolating myself from friends and family, it was definitely a struggle to move back into a healthier frame of mind, but good friends and supportive family members helped me through it.

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) in Turbinaria coral

What would you most like to change in the world/environment today?

The main thing would be to change peoples’ attitude towards nature from this foreign entity to an all-encompassing and absolutely necessary part of everyone’s lives. That way maybe people would put more pressure on policymakers to enact meaningful change in protecting local wild spaces and making more long-term efforts into sustainability and de-carbonising the economy.

What do you value most in life?

My friends and family, as well as my experiences in nature and getting to share those with others.

Pygmy seahorses (Hippocampus bargibanti)
This species camouflages itself so effectively that they weren’t even discovered until a New Caledonian scientist, Georges Bargibant, was examining a gorgonian in a lab in 1969! They’re only just over 1cm long and camouflage themselves exceptionally.

Are there any books/documentaries that have guided your thinking?

The first documentary series that really inspired me was the BBC blue planet series. Seeing those underwater images for the first time made me desperate to experience them for myself. More recently, both the books ‘The Sixth Extinction: an Unnatural History’ by Elizabeth Kolbert and ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’ by David Wallace-Wells have really informed my thinking on the urgency of conservation and large scale change to address the growing climate catastrophe we find ourselves in.

Anker’s whip coral shrimp (Pontonides ankeri)

What brings you the most joy? 

Making the people I love and care about happy. In a more material sense, I find I get a feeling of intense joy when I manage to capture a beautiful image of a creature I’ve never seen before. I find it especially rewarding when working in comparatively more challenging conditions, such as on night dives or with limited equipment.

What legacy do you hope to leave?

I hope to make lasting change through not only scientific research but also exploration of the deep oceans. It would be a dream of mine to discover a new species! I also hope to inspire real change towards the protection of the oceans, in line with the 30 by 30 initiative and beyond, through education of prospective ocean ambassadors and inspiration of following generations.

Website - jamesmatthewsuw.com

Instagram - @matthews_uw