The Lonely Lord of the sea, the great white shark, ‘Carcharodon carcharias’, swims silently and true, her senses bristling for motion, a heartbeat or sound that will guide her effortlessly to her prey.

I once had a guest say to me that the great white does not swim through the water, but rather the water moves with the great white, such is the unperceivable and graceful manner in which this ultimate predator moves.

When you walk amongst predators in the bush you listen for the snap of a twig; the padded footfall as it gently crunches leaves, or the tell-tale giveaway of an alarm call of vigilant prey aware of the predator’s malevolent present. Time and time again I have felt it, and I yearn for the thrill of it. It is a visceral feeling of a super predatory nature; you can’t see or hear it but, like fog, it is suddenly upon you.

In nature there are few things as intimidating as a great white suddenly materializing out of its inky world, and there are few as exciting.

The great white elicits more emotion from us than probably any other creature, and yet in all my dealings with this being, be it from within a cage, free diving in open water or even in the pitch dark, I have never had one act openly aggressively towards me. Why, then, is it that every part of our body enters into a state of heightened sensory awareness when we see that dorsal fin cleaving the surface?

The answer is simple: it’s not what the shark does, it’s what we know it is capable of.

There is no other creature on the planet that in one bite can tear us in half and then turn within its own body length to consume the other half. It is a terrifying thought, like a knifeman in the dark. The reality, however, is that this imaginary figment of predatory malevolence has generally little interest in us.

Over the past 60 million years the great white has evolved to seek, hunt and kill its prey. It is only by submersing and exposing ourselves that we get to know the real nature of the great white and have any chance of attaining one of nature’s greatest rewards: that of being accepted in the Lonely Lord’s world.

Available Sizes

Exhibition: 173cm x 112cm (68” x 44”)
Large: 146 cm x 94.5 cm (57.5″ x 37″)
Classic: 118cm x 76.5cm (46.5” x 30”)

Available Editions
Exhibition: 12
Large: 12
Classic: 12