Emory Kristof gave the world its first glimpse of the sunken Titanic.
He was the man who discovered the Titanic wreck in 1985, and the first to photograph it and share it with the world. He told National Geographic he needed about a decade to find it, and he found it in 8 years ~ 10 miles off-course from where it was reported to have hit the iceberg and sunk.
He documented the images into an IMAX film and invited director James Cameron to watch it. The massive bow of the Titanic exploded on the IMAX screen in the opening scene and Cameron was completely blown away. He went on to make an epic movie about the Titanic.
Well, our guest today is renowned explorer and National Geographic photographer Emory Kristof. Besides the Titanic, this deep sea diver also discovered a whole new deep ocean ecosystem (1977), and went in search of the Loch Ness monster in Scotland.
Emory looks every bit an explorer to me: Bushy beard, wise eyes, down to his checkered shirt! During our chat, he wanted to put on his headphones because he admits to being a little hard of hearing, which made asking him a question during the break tough because he couldn't hear me. I gestured to him to take it off.
He did - much to my amusement [pictured, left]. It was tough holding a conversation with a straight face after. So I whipped out my camera and snapped this picture of him!
Well, Emory shared that he, together with Michael Aw (renowned underwater photographer), will be launching an expedition to Antarctica soon, with 5 Singaporean-based members on the international team.
Even though he's a happily retired photojournalist (after publishing over 40 articles for National Geographic and winning countless awards), Emory is still very much an adventurer at heart. It was indeed an honour to be in the presence of this big, big man.
In the company of a gentle Giant: Emory Kristof in The Living Room.
1 comment:
this guy was brilliant, attending his talk at boat asia.. amazing research!
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