Lorenzo Mittiga is an Italian photographer born in 1969. Passionate about the sea and ocean, he started out as a cameraman specialising in marine and submarine life, then became a documentary filmmaker for Italian television, while obtaining a degree in Marine Biology from the University of Rome. After these years of “televisual adventure” as he puts it, he chose photography to open up new prospects and new creative possibilities for himself. A choice that paid off, since his photos were soon published by magazines of reference such as National Geographic or Scuba Diving Magazine. In 2014, he won first prize at the Smithsonian Magazine International Photo Contest for his photo of an iguana half immersed in an open-air cave (The Green Iguana). Today, he lives on the island of Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles and his photos are published in magazines the world over. “I use photography as a tool for sharing emotions with the public,” he explains, “to help them understand how beautiful our planet is and that it deserves much more respect from us.”