Ocean Photographer Of The Year 2022 Ben Thouard Continues Mesmerizing People With His Photography

This year, Olympic surfing took place 10,000 miles away from Paris, in Tahiti’s village Teahupo'o, which is known for the world’s heaviest waves.

Storms in the South Pacific below New Zealand generate the swells that show up off the coast of Tahiti in giant, perfectly shaped waves, which are not only incredibly beautiful but also very dangerous. Award-winning surf and wave photographer Ben Thouard was chosen as the only photographer to go into the water during the Olympics due to his extraordinary skills in taming the ocean in the most challenging conditions. 

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Originally from Toulon in the south of France, Ben Thouard has always been connected to the water, as his father had a sailboat and all his summers would be spent on board. From the moment his brothers taught him how to surf at only eight years old, he developed a deep and truly special love of the ocean.

Ben discovered photography when he accidentally found an old camera in his parents' attic, and he hasn't stopped being fascinated with taking photos ever since.

Paris was Ben’s first playground. Thirsty for knowledge, as he was only a teenager at the time, he spent countless hours reading, learning, and shooting. 

Asked about how and when he decided to move to Tahiti, Ben told Bored Panda in an interview that this destination had always been in his mind.

"It is very special to me because I love the place, the people, the culture and the access to the ocean, and the playground is just amazing," Ben said. "Tahiti was always kind of a dream of mine from seeing all those surf photos in the magazines. I’ve had family living in Tahiti since long ago, so I would always see photos and videos from my cousins living there, but I never had a chance to visit until I was 21 years old," he explained.

The first trip to Tahiti happened in 2007 when Ben's best friend, professional windsurfer Baptiste Gossein, invited him to go there for a one-month surf photography trip. Ben got to see this magical place where the waves were completely unique, and he fell so in love with it that he decided to move there.

“When I put some goggles on, I was able to see the amazing underwater world of Teahupo’o. I was hooked,” he recalled the memories.

Ben was simply blown away by what was happening under the waves and the fact that nobody was really paying attention to that.

"Of course, when you’re shooting surfing, you wanna see the surfer, the face, the equipment and so you shoot above the water and nobody would really want a photo from underwater, but I was so mesmerized that I started shooting underwater," Ben explained and added that after shooting surfing for so many years, he wanted to add something more personal.

After the first few test photos, he still couldn't believe how amazing and changeable the ocean could be, so he decided to give more energy and time to this style of photography. The multi-award-winning photographer found a very specific one-of-a-kind angle to show the contrast between the ocean’s peace and its chaos.

"I made my first book called Surface, which is a mix of my first 10 years being in Tahiti. There are some surfing photos, some iconic moments and some really big waves as well as the beginning of my more artistic work underwater.

Working on the first book was very fulfilling and brought so much joy that Ben decided to focus 100 percent of his time on his personal projects. And so right away, he worked on the second one called Turbulences, which took him another 4 years to finish.

"They are definitely related to one another. I would say that Surface was the beginning of my artistic journey and the beginning of my underwater quest while Turbulences is a continuation of my personal work, but it's more profound and more artistic, abstract, probably. So they are different but they are related," he explained.

When asked about what would be the main message he aims to transmit through his photography, Ben told us that actually, he doesn't think about anything but his love for the ocean.

"It’s very relaxing and emotional to me to be in the water. It's something that I need in my everyday life, so I often compare shooting in the water to meditating, because all of a sudden, you put your head in the water and the water gets in, so you don’t hear anything anymore," Ben said.

"I’m extremely focused on what I’m looking at, what I’m shooting or want to shoot, so I’m not thinking about anything else. The body just goes with the flow and I’m 100 percent in the moment. So I guess I just wanna share the emotion that I feel when I’m in the water and how amazing the underwater world is. I’m blown away from what I see there and I just want to share it with people," he added.

Ben shared that he is very happy to have a chance to live by the ocean, because he goes there every day for surfing, swimming, shooting, paddling - anything! He just loves being in the ocean, since it’s always about very relaxing moments.

"It’s where I work, exercise, where I get inspiration from, so I couldn’t live without the ocean. The ocean to me is just life and happiness," Ben said.

Film director and photographer Dirk Braun recently presented a short film titled End Of The Road, which offers a glimpse into Ben Thouard’s impressive dives beneath towering waves. 

In this 8-minute-long clip, people are able to see both the breathtaking beauty of Ben’s photography and the supportive community that surrounded him leading up to the debut of surfing at Teahupo’o, Tahiti, French Polynesia, in the 2024 Olympics.

It all started when Dirk was introduced to Ben Thouard through a friend named Ben Marcus by way of a local newsstand which was across from his gallery in Malibu.

"Ben Marcus is a prolific freelance writer and the former editor of Surfer Magazine. Tahiti is a destination that has been on my radar for a long time and after meeting Ben Thouard, it felt like the perfect opportunity to finally go and discover what makes Tahiti so unique," Dirk explained in an interview with Bored Panda.

Asked about what was the most special moment making End Of The Road, he said that they were countless.

"Seeing the natural beauty of the island, diving under the waves at Teahupo’o, meeting the locals, and when we got the huge ‘first wave of the season’ on camera," Dirk said. "In post production, when the story comes together is so satisfying and when Kauli Vaast who is featured in the film won the gold medal, it was amazing!"

While Tahiti has been known as a global destination for surfers since 1960, Teahupo'o's defining moment came a bit later. The first surfer who finally found the courage to take a ride on the giant waves there was Thierry Vernaudon back in 1985, yet Teahupo'o's defining moment only came in 1998 at the Gotcha Tahiti Pro, where the world saw for the first time what this magical place was capable of. 

The giant waves in this French Polynesian paradise form in the Teahupo'o Passage, which connects the open ocean to the Tahitian lagoon. This is similar to the world's biggest waves in Nazaré, as the seabed plays a crucial role. 

The reef is really sharp and shallow, so when the waves arrive at this point, they dramatically increase in height and speed, collapsing into a massive wall of water and creating probably one of the most perfect and deepest tubes in the surfing world. 

The waves are usually between 3 and 5 meters high, but sometimes can exceed 7 or even 10 meters and then it becomes really dangerous to enter the water, since such waves can cause serious or even fatal injuries. Therefore, in such conditions, Code Red is established. It already has been declared twice, in 2011 and quite recently in 2022.

Ben Thouard has been photographing the waves, and what’s underneath them, for more than 15 years, sharing some truly breathtaking moments with people from all around the world.

I have been mesmerized by the endless beauty of the ocean since I was a little kid, so when I saw Ben's photos for the first time, I just simply couldn't take my eyes off them. It seems to me that somehow, he's the only one who manages to capture the ocean's soul.