• Humpback whale. Photo by Bryant Austin.
    Humpback whale. Photo by Bryant Austin.
  • Humpback whale calf. Photo by Bryant Austin.
    Humpback whale calf. Photo by Bryant Austin.
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 A new exhibition at the Australian Maritime Museum features life-size photographs of whales at sea.

Bryant Austin has been photographing whales for more than 20 years. The Californian photographer is not only known for his beautiful images of whales in their natural environment, but for his life-size prints, which show the whales at their breathtaking scale – some up to nine metres long.

Beautiful Whale – life size photography by Bryant Austin opens at the Australian Maritime Museum on 11 April and features 11 enormous images of his cetacean subjects including a sperm whale from the Eastern Caribbean, humpback whales from the South Pacific and a dwarf minke whale from the Great Barrier Reef.

Austin spent months tracking whales off the coast of Tonga, Dominica and the Great Barrier Reef, waiting for the perfect encounter. Using only a snorkel, Austin would wait alone, patiently suspended in the water waiting for a whale to pass within two metres of his camera lens.

The results are highly intimate, detailed, and to scale; measuring up to two-by-nine metres and reproduced from 60 gigabyte images.

In a 2012 TEDx Talk in California, Austin described the rationale behind his images:

“My journey as an artist led me to create photographs of whales on their scale — both in terms of size and detail. For me, it’s a starting point to provide the world with a visceral memory of what a whale really looks like.”

Austin's body of work represents the world’s largest and most detailed collection of whale images and he is also the only photographer in the world creating whale photos to scale.

Austin will present an artist’s talk and tour at the museum at 7.30pm on Friday 11 April, and a special family talk and tour at 11am on Saturday 12 April.

Beautiful Whale – life size photography by Bryant Austin is showing exclusively at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, until 1 February 2015.

More info: www.anmm.gov.au/beautifulwhale


A minke whale printed life size at the Australian Maritime Museum.


Minke Whale. Photo Bryant Austin.

Humpback whale calf. Photo by Bryant Austin.
Humpback whale calf. Photo by Bryant Austin.




Humpback whales, mother and calf. Photo by Bryant Austin.


Humpback whale. Photo by Bryant Austin.
Humpback whale calf. Photo by Bryant Austin.



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