Beneath The Surface of Competitive Freediving

• Prize
  Gold in Events/Sport, 1st Place winner in Events
• Photographer
  Kohei Ueno
• Agency / Studio
  Kohei Ueno Photography
• Technical Info
  1/800, ISO300, f/5.6, Full-Frame, 16mm
• Photo Date
  17 September 2019
• Website
  https://www.koheiueno.com/

Freediving is a sport where you hold your breath and dive as deep as you can on one breath of air. From the outside it may seem like an extreme sport where athletes dive for the enjoyment of adrenaline and thrill. However, if you look closely beneath the surface, you will find that this sport is more about being calm, relaxed, and diving to seek inner peace.

• Biography
  Kohei is an international award winning photographer from Japan, specialising in freediving and underwater photography based out of Asia. He picked up his first camera in 2014 when he quit his job at Google to travel the world, capturing images along the way that won him 1st place at the 2016 Alpha Awards. Since then, he's taken the camera underwater combining it with his passion for freediving. Since then he’s won multiple awards with numerous work published locally and abroad, including 2nd place at the Sony World Photography Awards, and winning the 2019 IPA Sports Photographer of the Year.
• Awards
  [2016] Grand Winner - Sony Inaugural Alpha Art House Photo Competition 2016 [2016] 1st Place - Sony Inaugural Photo Competition 2016 (Category: Editorial) [2017] 1st Place - 7 World’s Continents Photo Challenge 2017 [2017] Video Honorable Award - Ocean Geographics Pictures of the Year 2017 [2017] 1st place - Steemit BW Animals photo contest (Daveks) [2017] 2nd place - Steemit 1 year Anniversary Photo Competition [2017] Barcroft Media Magazine Feature - Freediver Bonds with Migrating Humpback Whales [2018] Finalist - Sony World Photography Awards 2018 (Professional Category: Nature) [2019] 1st Place - 2019 Sony World Photography Awards (Professional Category: Sports) [2019] 1st Place - Sony Singapore J2G Animal Photo Facebook Competition (August). [2019] Finalist - Sony Alpha Awards ANZ Photo Competition (Sports) [2019] Finalist - Alpha Create 2.0 Instagram Contest by SonySG (Kitakyushu Japan) [2019] 1st Place - International Photography Awards 2019 (Professional Category: Extreme Sports) [2019] Grand Winner - IPA Sports Photographer of The Year 2019 [2019] Finalist - Lucie Awards 2019 (International Photographer of The Year Awards) [2019] Finalist - Red bull Illume 2019 Image Quest (Category: Lifestyle) [2019] Finalist - 2019 EyeEm Awards (The Great Outdoors)