The Art of Living Mollusks

About this book

The author, an experienced diver, is fascinated by shells and the molluscs inhabiting them. Since so few people ever encounter these alive, his previous two books, Living Shells and Living Mollusks, showed living molluscs, including living shells, in their native habitat and introduced readers to their exceptional beauty. So, why a third book about living shells?

With this book, the author hopes to open the world to an artistic interpretation of these living molluscs – to share with the world a unique view that is the beauty of these creatures. As William Blake noted: "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern." The author began to view these molluscs in a different way, a cleansed perception so to speak, and in a way that he wanted to show other people. The photographs collected here highlight their form, their colour, their pattern; in a way that presented them in their true uniqueness.

To that end, he has photographed them using different lighting techniques, angles, and in their abstract beauty. Moreover, he has provided a personal insight into those photographs. Be they photographs of cephalopods from New Guinea, volutes from Australia, nudibranchs from Baja, or shells from the Pacific Northwest, the author has provided the how, why, where and when for each photograph. This is art from a source that is quickly disappearing, as living molluscs are disappearing due to climate and environmental degradation as well as human destruction of habitats.

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