Million Air Spring 2024

PinkCoral by Helen Walne

new challenges for Walne — namely, her subject. Back in Cape Town, kelp forests work to her advantage, creating funnels of light to frame the marine life within; Benguerra Island’s coral, not so much. “Coral is so much harder to photograph. It’s just very… there ,” she says. “It’s way more challenging but it’s really helped me to understand how it works as a creative medium — I want to do a coral series now.” As you’d expect, spending so much of her life among the species and inside the water has spurred “I started out taking awful pictures with a really cheap camera but now I have this enormous rig — it makes me feel very badass”

novel 3D seabed mapping to create virtual reviews of each of its 13 nearby dive sites, each with thorough accounts of depth, visibility and common resident species. “Our guide took us to Two Mile Reef, which is one of the main reefs. It was busy with tourist boats, but those corals really rival what you can see around the Red Sea — they are pristine and thriving and rich. It was amazing.” Despite being catapulted to virtually the de fi nition of paradise, heading around the South African coast, east toward Mozambique, presented

on Walne’s steadfast commitment to helping protect them — not just via partnering with brands and organizations with the motivation and the means to make a di ff erence, but also through her art itself. “Animals and plants, they don’t speak ‘human,’ so I see myself as a bit of a conduit. And maybe I’m not always saying the right thing… but it’s almost like I am collaborating with them to show people how fragile things are,” she says. “The way I take pictures is to capture beauty, and I really hope it moves people. And then once they get invested, then they realize we have to look after this [environment] because — particularly corals, but even kelp — they are really su ff ering.” What began for Walne as a form of therapy following the loss of her brother has taken on a life of its own, melding into more than just a passion project but a global career in a fi eld she never anticipated. “It’s evolved — in the beginning, it was de fi nitely a healing experience. But now it’s something beautiful and more a joyous celebration. I don’t think I would have ever started swimming or diving without that.”

Fromleft RushHour by Helen Walne; Super Bowl byHelen Walne; Kisawa Sanctuary in Mozambique

kisawasanctuary.com, @helen_walne

Photos Helen Walne, Elsa Young, Jackie Wernberg