News

After publishing weekly winners over the last three months, the Hasselblad X You photo competition has selected a grand prize winner: a fashion editorial image captured in a striking urban environment by Clarissa Bonet. But for underwater photographers, it will be one of the weekly winners—Jacob Degee’s masterful shot of a manta ray—that will be of most interest.

“The first challenge with this photo was being able to take my Hasselblad underwater,” says Jacob. “There is no branded housing on the market, so I custom-built one for my use. It took me six months and many underwater trials to have a X1D housing fully operational.” Degee captured his winning image with his bespoke housing while freediving and photographing whale sharks off Mexico’s Isla Mujeres.

“This manta was so happy with the huge amount of food that she was even swimming upside down continuing her feast. I needed to get closer to minimize the amount of water between the subject and the lens and to angle my shot from the right side in order to catch the sun beams. I wanted to present the manta as if it was flying in the sky, framing the photo in such a way that the surface is at the bottom and the crystal-clear water seems like the sky.”

See the other winners and finalists here.