Bill Curtsinger | |
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![]() Curtsinger at Northwind Art's Grover Gallery, c. 2021 Port Townsend, Wash. | |
Born | 1946 |
Other names | William R. Curtsinger |
Citizenship | American |
Education | |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1967 | –Present
Employers |
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Known for | Underwater photography |
Awards |
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Military career | |
Branch | United States Navy |
years | 1967 | –1970
Rank | Petty officer second class |
Unit | Combat Camera Group Atlantic Fleet |
Known for | First color cover page in Naval Aviation News |
Assignments | |
Awards | |
Website | www |
Bill Curtsinger is an American photographer and writer who publishes on underwater photography and natural history subjects. Curtsinger has photographed thirty-five articles, including six cover stories for National Geographic as well as a cover story for Life. His photos have also appeared in Smithsonian, Natural History, various scientific journals and a number of books worldwide.
Curtsinger was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1946 and grew up in Mount Holly, New Jersey[1] near the Pine Barrens region. In later life, he provided photographic images for a book about the sprawling ecosystem at the barrens.[2]
As a teenager Curtsinger was inspired to photograph the underwater arena by reading Jacques Cousteau's book The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure.[3] Cousteau was an award-winning underwater diver who captured exotic underwater videos and photos.[4] Curtsinger also read his grandfather's National Geographic magazines for additional inspiration.[2]
Further inspiration as a teenager would come in the form of a poem by Robinson Jeffers.[2]
...Integrity is wholeness, the greatest beauty is organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty of the universe. Love that...
— Robinson Jeffers, The Answer[5]
At the age of 16, Curtsinger bought his first camera, a Kodak Retinette 1A 35mm rangefinder. The first image he took was a Northern red-bellied turtle at Pine Barrens.[2]
Curtsinger is one of the first underwater photographers to capture extensive images of marine life under the polar ice in Antarctica. He had been a freelance photographer since leaving the U.S. Navy with his photographic imagery focusing on underwater, natural history, maritime archaeology, people, culture, environments and wildlife. He has photographed thirty-three articles, including six cover stories, for National Geographic. Curtsinger's photos have also appeared on the cover of Orion, Life and Natural History magazines with stories in a number of other magazines such as BBC Wildlife and Smithsonian.[6]
The subjects of Curtsinger's photographs have included species and natural systems such as whales, walruses, penguins, dolphins, seals, sea turtles and sharks. His stories have featured locations such as Antarctica, Canada, Argentina, Africa and The Caroline Islands of the tropical Pacific.[15][16]
Curtsinger's work also includes numerous textbooks, journals and aquarium displays and he has been a contributor to Gulf of Maine Research Institute publications and website.[6] He has eight titled published books including Extreme Nature: Images from the World's Edge, a four hundred page retrospective of his career, published in 2005 by White Star Publishers in nine languages.[17]
Curtsinger has stated that he pitched his first assignment with National Geographic to Bob Gilka because he knew the magazine had not published any articles about the peninsula. Having spent six months in the cold barren landscape of Antarctica he knew that the peninsula was more interesting and more biological diverse than what was previously published in the Geographic.[13]: 33:10 His very first article was a cover story in the November 1971 issue of National Geographic, "Antarctica's Nearer Side" by Samuel W. Matthews.[18]
With his crisp, clean photos of whales, seals, penguins, and dolphins, ex-Navy photographer Bill Curtsinger helped the National Geographic Society pioneer the field of underwater marine life photography with stunning pictures such as this shot of an Emperor penguin gliding through the waters of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica.
In January 1995 National Geographic published an article photographed and written by Curtsinger about grey reef sharks. In a subsection of the story, he reminisces about a 1973 encounter with the same species of sharks in the Micronesian lagoon in the Caroline Islands.[20]
The shark came at me like a rocket. I had time only to lift my hand...(The shark then) raked my right shoulder. At that moment a friend rescued me in a dingy.
— Curtsinger, Bill National Geographic[20]
After this encounter he only needed minor reconstructive surgery to his hand and shoulder. He has stated that grey reef sharks are extremely territorial, suspect in many attacks on indigenous islanders throughout Oceania and was most likely driving away a perceived competitor or predator.[20]
Curtsinger has also photographed many shipwrecks throughout his career, like the Mary Rose at Portsmouth Harbour, which was active during the reign of Henry the VIII.[21] He has also photographed the 16th century Basque whaling ship off the coast of Labrador,[22] the 17th century Swedish warship Kronan that sank in the Baltic Sea off the Swedish island of Öland[23] and a 14th-century Bronze Age merchant ship, which was the oldest known shipwreck at that time (1987).[24]
In 1991 he captured the sunken fleet of Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Operation Crossroads was a classified undertaking by the U.S. military to test nuclear weapons underwater in 1946. National Geographic ran a story about the underwater wreckage in their June 1992 issue authored by John L. Elliot and photographed by Curtsinger.[25] Also, a scientific journal was published for the United States Department of the Interior, The Archeology of the Atomic Bomb, featuring select images from Curtsinger.[26]
As new generations of photographers enter the field of photography, some have been inspired by Curtsinger's work, such as Brian Skerry. In a 2021 article in The Maine Magazine, Skerry recalls Curtsinger turning down a National Geographic photo shoot of the 1717 pirate shipwreck Whydah Gally, buried in the sand off Cape Cod. Curtsinger turned down the job due to scheduling issues, but put in a good word for Skerry, who in turn, took the job.[31] Skerry had his photos published in the May 1999 issue of National Geographic.[32]
In 1972, during Curtsinger's second photo assignment with National Geographic about salt marshes, he moved to Maine,[33] where in 1974 he married Kate Mahoney. They had two children together, Justin and Owen. In June 2003, Mahoney passed away from a seven-year battle with breast cancer. Curtsinger and Mahoney were married for twenty-nine years and during that time, Mahoney was responsible for the organization and sales of Curtsinger's stock photos business, which she created.[34] Mahoney was a founding member of Peregrine Press located in Portland, Maine.[35]
With the advance of the internet and declining stock photo sales, Curtsinger left Maine and moved to Port Townsend, Washington in 2006. He became the co-owner, along with his second wife Sue Ohlson, of Sunrise Coffee Company.[15]
Even though Curtsinger in no longer a freelancer in the field of photography, he continues to photograph and in 2021 collaborated with Kenneth Brower on the book Curtsinger: Reflections on the Life and Adventures of Bill Curtsinger.[36]