Planète Méditerranée

Laurent Ballesta is a French photographer coming from Montpellier. He is the author of 13 photography books dedicated to underwater wildlife. Co-creator of the company “Andromède Océanologie” in 2000, he led several large-scale expeditions during the last 10 years. His Gombessa Expeditions are based on three emblematic values : a scientific mystery, a diving challenge and a promise of new images. From the first photographs of the coelacanth taken by a diver at 120 meters depth to the hunting of the 700 Fakarava sharks in the night, to the longest and deepest dives in Antarctica, Laurent illustrates the sub-Antarctic underwater world with a naturalistic and artistic eye. In July 2019, Laurent achieved a first worldwide by successfully combining the ways of saturation diving initially dedicated to offshore exploitation, with the techniques of autonomous diving in recycler with electronic management in order to illustrate the deep and typical ecosystems of the Mediterranean, and to set up scientific protocols at these great depths. With three other divers, Antonin Guilbert, Yanick Gentil and Thibault Rauby, they cohabited in a 5m2 pressurized module up to 13 bars, the equivalent of -120m of bottom, during 28 days. Daily, they went out to explore and freely study for an unlimited time the twilight zone between 60 and 140 meters deep, from Marseille to Monaco.