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Book Review: The Underwater Eye by Margaret Cohen
Jeff Goodman reviews The Underwater Eye: How the Movie Camera Opened the Depths and Unleashed New Realms of Fantasy by Margaret Cohen
It’s not that long ago that humans started to explore the underwater world in person rather than only being able to observe from what we saw at the surface or brought up in fishing nets. We progressed from basic underwater diving barrels to modern day scuba in a very short time and during that time, we invented cameras that could function underwater and record all we saw. Stunning and rapid advances in technology that enabled us all to explore and share the underwater world.
It is important, and enjoyable, to explore those advances and to gain the knowledge of the progression of our inventions, up to the present day, and Margaret Cohen’s comprehensive research and skilful writing makes this book a fascinating read.
Today everyone can have access to underwater cameras and the scuba/diving equipment needed to use them. We take it all for granted. But it was, we are informed, all hard earned for us by a few extraordinary people with a great passion for exploration and invention, as well as a love of the underwater world.
The Underwater Eye is a very well written and researched book that takes us comprehensively through this remarkable journey. Since the early days of underwater exploration and film making where it was exploitation of wrecks as well as recording the unknown wonders of marine life that drove us forward, we now use underwater filming in many other forms such as education, entertainment, science and art. It is an exciting and thrilling environment to be filming in and this book captures all that excitement in both its text and wonderful historic images.
The book covers, in detail, the filming of our fantastic marine life as well as looking at the issues of pollution, over fishing and habitat loss. It is here that underwater cameras and filming can help to let the world see what is happening to our oceans and ‘The Underwater Eye’ can be part of our ocean’s protection.
As well as being available as an e-book, it is the hardback version that I prefer to be on my book shelf or resting on the side table, to be revisited and appreciated in quiet moments.
Published by Princeton University Press | 21st June 2022 | Hardback | £28
For more information, please contact Alyssa_Sanford@press.princeton.edu
Margaret Cohen is the Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French Language, Literature, and Civilization at Stanford University, where she teaches in the Department of English. Her books include the award-winning The Novel and the Sea and The Sentimental Education of the Novel (both Princeton), as well as Profane Illumination: Walter Benjamin and the Paris of Surrealist Revolution. She is also the coeditor of The Aesthetics of the Undersea and general editor of A Cultural History of the Sea. She lives in Stanford, California.
Over the next 12 months, specialist scuba holiday company Dive Worldwide will be supporting Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation with donations collected from client bookings to any one of its stunning dive destinations around the world. The independently-owned operator expects to raise £3000 for the UK charity.
Manager at Dive Worldwide, Phil North, said: “We’re especially excited to work with Bite-Back and support its intelligent, creative and results-driven campaigns to end the UK trade in shark products and prompt a change in attitudes to the ocean’s most maligned inhabitant.”
Bite-Back is running campaigns to hold the media to account on the way it reports shark news along with a brand new nationwide education programme. Last year the charity was credited for spearheading a UK ban on the import and export of shark fins.
Campaign director at Bite-Back, Graham Buckingham, said: “We’re enormously grateful to Dive Worldwide for choosing to support Bite-Back. The company’s commitment to conservation helps set it apart from other tour operators and we’re certain its clients admire and respect that policy. For us, the affiliation is huge and helps us look to the future with confidence we can deliver against key conservation programmes.”
To launch the fundraising initiative, Phil North presented Graham Buckingham with a cheque for £1,000.
Visit Dive Worldwide to discover its diverse range of international scuba adventures and visit Bite-Back to learn more about the charity’s campaigns.
MORE INFORMATION
Call Graham Buckingham on 07810 454 266 or email graham@bite-back.com
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