Name: Franco Banfi
Picture title: Stinging Elegance
Category: Underwater
Nationality: Switzerland
Occupation: Full-time photographer
Technical information
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens: Canon EF 8-15 mm f/4L Fisheye
EXIF: 1/400 sec at f/11 • ISO 800
Accessories: Isotta Underwater Housing – no strobes, no lights
HIGHLY COMMENDED CATEGORY UNDERWATER
Franco Banfi | Stinging Elegance
Name: Franco Banfi
Picture title: Stinging elegance
Category: Underwater
Nationality: Switzerland
Occupation: Full-time photographer
Technical information
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens: Canon EF 8-15 mm f/4L Fisheye
EXIF: 1/400 sec at f/11 • ISO 800
Accessories: Isotta Underwater Housing – no strobes, no lights
Franco Banfi says:
I spotted this wonderful but stinging and dangerous Portuguese man o’ war with its commensal bluebottle fishes, while I was looking for a different species (sperm whales) in the warm water of the Caribbean Sea.
I was attracted by the frantic movements of the tiny bluebottle fishes, which swim close to the surface and among the tentacles of the Portuguese man o’ war, since they are partially immune to the stinging tentacles’ venom which discourages predators, hence they benefit from the shelter provided.
Although these fishes seem to be ten times more resistant to the toxin than other fishes, they can be stung by the dactylozooides (large tentacles), which they actively avoid.
The almost transparent gas-filled bladder of the Portuguese man o’ war, the colours, ranging from pink, to purple, to violet in total contrast with the clear blue of the marine water made for a delicate portrait.
The innate grace and elegance of this animal (especially the bladder, the upper / aerial part) are in total opposition to the danger of the nematocysts’ venom (found along the tentacles, on the underwater part). Nematocysts trigger and inject venom on contact, stinging, paralyzing, and killing molluscs and fishes, and cause severe pain to humans. On some level, the Portuguese man o’ war perfectly represents the opposition between good and evil; the forces of good and evil that are inherent in every living being.
I framed the elaborate shape, carefully approaching from below the surface to see and to be able to avoid the tentacles.
Species: Physalia physalis, Portuguese man o’ war, with fishes Nomeus gronovii. bluebottle fishes or man-of-war fishes
Location: Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Dominica Island, part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago
Conservation status (IUCN): not evaluated
Franco Banfi
Switzerland
I’m a self-taught professional photographer, specialized in wildlife and reportage imaging. I started my career about 25 years ago as an underwater professional photographer.
The basic elements that characterize my photographic projects, works and pictures are curiosity, attention to detail, movements, innovation. I’m interested in recording the changes in life forms and the interactions with humans. I’m not motivated to convey concepts of static conservation of exotic ecosystems, but rather by a process of becoming, a perpetual mutation of existing (and existed) biological diversity, the result of an evolution that consistently adds new variants to all ecosystems, an endless mutation.
My images have illustrated hundreds of books and calendars, and have been published in renowned magazines around the world (to name the few: GEO, National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Tauchen, DAN Alert, Focus, Red Bull magazine, Terre Sauvage).
I took a step in social media and social networks, blogs, posts and exhibitions, which currently have more power in spreading information and making known the efforts of scientists and individuals.
A multi-media approach is necessary to simultaneously reach a wider audience, often not attentive to environmental problems (especially the marine ones, hidden below the surface) since information runs and becomes obsolete in a short time, generating disinterest and sometimes boredom in the mass of people.