Dr Alex Mustard MBE is one of the world’s most celebrated underwater photographers. With images published worldwide and a career spanning over 25 years, he is recognised both as a creative pioneer and an inspiring teacher. His work — from award-winning photographs to leading books and sought-after workshops — continues to shape how we see the ocean.
Celebrated Underwater Photographer, Marine Biologist, and Innovator in Ocean Imagery
Alex has been taking photographs underwater since he was 9 years old and has worked as a full time underwater photographer since 2004. In 2018 he received national recognition being made an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II for ‘services to underwater photography’. He has a PhD in marine ecology, which constantly informs his photography. He dives, teaches workshops and photographs all around the world.
His photographs have won many awards including regularly in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year – being awarded in 9 different categories and appearing in 17 different books of winning pictures over the last 20 years. His 2007 book Reefs Revealed, won the International Grand Prize for the best book of underwater photographs, while his 2016 instructional book Underwater Photography Masterclass remains the most sought after title on the subject and was first reprinted just two weeks after its launch. In 2013, Alex was also named GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his image Night Moves, the first underwater photograph to win this prestigious award.
His photographs have been displayed in exhibitions around the world and a particular highlight was personally presenting his work to Queen Elizabeth II in 2005. In 2003 he received the Visions In the Sea Award for Outstanding Contributions to Underwater Photography, in 2016 the ADEX Award for Extraordinary Contribution to Underwater Photography and in 2020 the Tridente D’Oro – Underwater Academy Award. In 2024 he was named as President of the British Society of Underwater Photographers.
He is a founder and chair of the jury for the Underwater Photographer of the Year competition and has acted as a judge for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year, the CMAS World Championship of Underwater Photography, the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year, the British Wildlife Photography Awards, the Siena Awards and most other major contests. Alex’s photography is represented by Nature Picture Library.
Alex is a regular contributor to many publications in the marine, wildlife, diving and photographic media, and to date has published more than 900 articles and has over 200 magazine cover shots. In particular, he is a sought after writer on all aspects of underwater photography, especially technique articles. In addition to various features, he currently writes a monthly columns on underwater photography Scuba Diver Magazine (UK, Germany & Australasia).
His images are regularly featured in magazines, newspapers and books around the world. He has published several books including The Art of Diving (2006), Reefs Revealed (2007), Underwater Photography Masterclass (2016), Secrets of the Seas (2016), Diving The Thistlegorm (2020) and 52 Assignments: Underwater Photography (2024), and has contributed to more than 50, including many of the books that accompany David Attenborough’s landmark nature series (including Life On Earth, Blue Planet, Our Planet, Planet Earth, Wild Isles).
He was one of the commissioned photographers for the 2020VISION conservation photography project in the UK. He has professional clients from fields, from national tourist departments to fashion. One of his most unusual projects was with Nissan, who designed the Nissan NV200 concept car specifically around his needs as an underwater photographer.
Alex currently shoots with Sony cameras in Nauticam housings. Alex has collaborated with Nauticam since Edward Lai founded the company, and has been involved in the development and testing of many of their innovative optical products, such as the SMC, MFO, WAPC, FCP and EMWL. “Nauticam are deservedly the market leading for professional underwater housings and have revolutionised the capabilities of underwater imaging with their innovative and advanced products. I have never been paid to use any brand of equipment, in a competitive market I simple choose to use the equipment that gives me the unfair advantage in getting the best possible images.”
Alex is an Ambassador for Mares. He is also a Team Diver for Fourth Element. He is also very grateful to Retra, Backscatter, Zen, Marelux, Kraken and RGBlue for support of his underwater photography. Alex was also the inventor of Magic Filters, the filter that revolutionised available light underwater photography with digital cameras.
Alex’s Underwater Photography Workshops have become a must-do in photography circles and he runs them regularly throughout the year, at top diving destinations around the world. He also hosts the Underwater Photography Reboot, the online class teaching underwater photography. And for more informal teaching currently appears as the expert on YouTube’s Underwater Photography Show (over 150 episodes) and previously appeared on (more than 200 episodes) of YouTube’s Wetpixel Live. Both channels offer easy-listening education.
Alex was educated at Mount Kelly School, Devon, and Stowe School, Buckinghamshire, where he attended as a Roxburgh Scholar. As a marine biologist, Alex received both his undergraduate degree (BSc Hons) and his Ph.D. from Southampton University (both at the National Oceanography Centre) and was awarded in 2002 the Norman Heaps prize from the Challenger Society for Marine Science as one of the UK’s most promising young marine scientists. He no longer works as a marine scientist, but still occasionally publishes peer reviewed papers. Alex lives with his wife Eleonora and daughter Isabella on the south coast of England in Budleigh Salterton, Devon.
Published Quotes
MUSTARD, Dr. Alexander, U.K. (1975-). Marine scientist; award-winning underwater photographer; inventor of Magic Filter; digital officer for the British Society of Underwater Photographers; associate editor of Wetpixel.com; contributing editor DIVE Magazine; honorary editor Ocean Geographic Magazine; senior contributor Underwater Photography Magazine; amustard.com.
Alex has a unique eye. This is dynamic underwater imagery at its best.
Alex Mustard is one of the world’s leading underwater photographers; his images celebrate the extraordinary diversity of marine life in the world’s oceans. His wide-ranging portfolio includes everything from startling macro shots of fluorescent coral species to large-scale scenes of barnacle-encrusted shipwrecks resting on the ocean floor. All are captured in eye-popping detail and often in vivid colour. His pictures combine creativity with technical accomplishment and push the boundaries of what can be achieved with a camera beneath the surface of the water.
Alex Mustard has become synonymous with coupling fantastical visions of an image he has imagined with innovative equipment developments to create them. The result has been signature shots that are instantly recognisable as Mustard Masterpieces.
[Mustard is] arguably Britain’s most successful underwater photographer… who has won many awards for his thoughtful, original, and often spectacular work, and also for his new book.
Alex has provided consistently boundary-pushing articles and images throughout the history of UwP. It has been a pleasure to not only work with him in the magazine but also to go on a few trips together where his knowledge and enthusiasm are inspirational and contagious. His embrace of digital photography underwater has shown us all the way forward and his openness in imparting his knowledge and experience is a credit to his personality.
Alex… images are so unique, the power of the composition, you have enveloped the quality of a masterful artist.
Alex, you are a breath of fresh air to all underwater photographers; thank you for sharing your ideas with us.
As far as I am concerned, he’s the best underwater photographer currently working in the UK. Just as importantly, he’s a skillful writer who delights in sharing information with fellow enthusiasts.
