Reinhard Dirscherl:
Even after over 20 years of professional photography, Reinhard
Dirscherl, born in 1964, is still firmly established
in the international photography scene. The Munichbased
underwater photographer creates a unique and powerful
visual language. Dirscherl started his photographic career in
Thailand in 1989. Using a borrowed Nikonos, he took his first
underwater shots along the reefs of the Similan Islands. Looking
at the results from today’s perspective, his exploits were
disastrous. Yet the whiz was instantly driven to produce better
pictures. Back in Germany, it did not take him long before purchasing
his first own underwater camera. Reinhard spent a lot of
time back then in German and Austrian lakes, the camera at all
times in tow. Like many of his colleagues, Dirscherl earned his
first merits during photo contests and, as to be expected, set off
his competitive career in 1993 after winning a prize with UWF
(Unter-Wasser-Foto) Magazine. International photo awards
like »Antibes« and titles such as German Champion and Vice
World Champion for Underwater Photography, Nikon photo
competitions, winning the »BBC Wildlife Photographer of
the Year« award and the 2nd prize in the category nature of the World Press Photo Contest 2011 paved his way for a professional career, giving
him access to numerous international magazines, advertising
agencies as well as picture agencies. To free himself for his
photographic activities, Reinhard Dirscherl markets his digital
oeuvres through a picture agency established by his wife Daniela,
named »Waterframe« (www.water-frame.com) and his own internet images archive named »OceanPhoto« (www.ocean-photo.com). This allows
him to fully focus on his photographic work and affords him the
occasional luxury of experimenting with rather unconventional
imagery.
Text and images: Reinhard Dirscherl / www.ocean-photo.com
