Celebrated National Geographic Explorer and photographer Brian Skerry has spent nearly four decades exploring and documenting the world’s oceans. For his latest project, he turns his lens to one of the world’s most beloved animals to illuminate groundbreaking new insights into their lives and culture. Skerry spent more than two years in 24 locations around the world capturing remarkable images and video for a landmark National Geographic book, magazine story, and television series, Secrets of the Whales.
Hear his behind-the-scenes stories straight from the field and get an inside look at the groundbreaking science of whale culture—and its startlingly human parallels—across four different species. Discover the hunting techniques and international cuisines of orca pods and the multi-generational childcare systems and female-led families of sperm whales. Explore the culture of singing competitions among humpback whales and meet charming beluga whales in Canada that journey each summer to their “vacation resort.” Through Skerry’s mesmerizing work, uncover what these majestic creatures can teach us about ourselves and our planet.
Brian Skerry is a photojournalist specializing in marine wildlife and underwater environments. Since 1998, he has been a contributing photographer for National Geographic Magazine, covering a wide range of subjects and stories. He was named a National Geographic Society Photography Fellow in 2014 and a National Geographic Society Storytelling Fellow in 2017. In 2017, he was also awarded the title of Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year.
For National Geographic magazine, Skerry has covered a wide range of stories, from the harp seal’s struggle to survive in frozen waters to the alarming decrease in the world’s fisheries to dolphin intelligence—all cover stories. A fourth cover story in February 2017 focused on protecting special underwater ecosystems in U.S. waters, and during this coverage Skerry produced the first images of a sitting U.S. President underwater.
Skerry has also worked on assignment for or had images featured in magazines such as Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Paris Match, Esquire, and Audubon. Skerry is the author of 12 books, including the acclaimed monographs Ocean Soul, SHARK, and the newly released Secrets of the Whales.
Skerry is an 11-time award winner in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. He has also been recognized with awards from Pictures of the Year International, Nature’s Best, Communication Arts, and is the only photographer to win the coveted Peter Benchley Award for Excellence in Media. In 2010, National Geographic Magazine named one of Skerry images among their 50 Greatest Photographs of All Time and in 2016, he was awarded the National Geographic Photographer’s Photographer Award, an honor bestowed by his colleagues, other National Geographic photographers. The Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences awarded Skerry the 2019 NOGI Award for Arts, an award frequently referred to as the ‘Underwater Oscar.’
He has had numerous solo photographer exhibits, including Portraits of Planet Ocean, a two-year exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Other exhibits of his work have been held in cities worldwide, including Geneva, Barcelona, Lisbon, Shanghai, and Perpignan, France.
Skerry frequently lectures on photography, exploration, and conservation issues, having presented at venues such as The United Nations General Assembly, The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, TED Talks, The National Press Club in Washington, DC, The Royal Geographical Society in London, and the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
