thank you all for coming this evening so
I’m going to talk to you a little bit
about photographing darkness when when I
originally got into caves and caving and
then a couple of projects and then
finally my most recent assignment
earlier on this year so caves and Kaiser
are first homes they offered us a canvas
to create our first artwork about 40,000
years ago and he also offered as a safe
place during the last ice age
scientists believe that if there is life
on Mars it’s probably underground
sheltering away from the harsh
atmosphere outside in essence in caves
but we’ve basically evolved from caves
but I feel like we’ve lost that
connection and I want to bring that back
and that’s why I use social media to do
this it’s a great tool to bring this
back now whenever I speak to an on caver
about caves the reaction is always the
same I couldn’t do that I’m
claustrophobic and I get you know in
lifts and I don’t like tight spaces
is it not muddy dirty dark have any
monsters down there does this look small
can you see the four people in the
picture does this look dark or dirty
okay there are some monsters but they’re
not that dangerous and they’re doing
small you got a trap spider silk worm
blind fish but they can be fascinating
too because they’ve evolved to live in
total darkness where there’s no light
it’s not always plain sailing it can be
tide and it can also be dirty as well
these guys are digging out rocks and
boulders that are blocking a passage and
they’re trying to find somewhere new
where nobody’s been before it can also
be dangerous you imagine being in this
case passage where the water suddenly
rises and you’re going to be trapped but
it could also be spectacular
can you see the two people here that
person there in the distance is about
300 foot from the ceiling and 300 foot
above the floor now in my work as a
photographer I’m trying to break down
the borders between reality and
perception what is real and I mean real
exploration when no human being has ever
gone before conservation and wildlife
photographer grind scary once told me
that 95% of the world’s oceans are
unexplored that it’s a staggering
statistic but I can’t stand here and
tell you how many caves are unexplored
because we haven’t found them yet we
have to actually go there and see them
for real to know that they exist you you
can’t see them from satellites from
space and it’s bringing images like this
back to the surface and sharing them
with thousands and thousands of people
on social media like Instagram that’s
what drives me
however Caves don’t always look like
this I have to be honest it’s only for a
split second when you set off the
flashes and the light that you see them
like this most of the time cave look
like this
and it was it was seeing this space
underground in a cave in England about
16 years ago that got me hooked
I was absolutely drawn to the
environment where there’s no light it’s
an alien world and I was fascinated with
with this space and I I want I wanted to
take pictures in in the case basically
this was my first case photographs that
I took 16 years ago when I was studying
fine art at university in Sheffield and
at the time I wanted to combine my love
of caves and caving with my passion for
art so that’s when I started teaching
myself cave photography I would practice
in a local cave called titan’ using
these film cameras that I borrowed from
University I wouldn’t tell them where I
was taking them because I don’t I don’t
think they’d let me take them if they
knew where they were going and then at
weekends I got involved in a digging
project so we we decided to sink a
mineshaft from the surface through solid
rock and then a tunnel all the way to
Titan then we would drill big holes with
a compressed-air drill like this one
here and then blow up the limestone with
explosives and then all the rocks and
rubble we had to cast along the tunnel
on this railway that we installed and
then winch it to the surface it took
four years to complete this project
sinking the shaft from the surface
making the connection through to Titan
now at the time like I said using the
film cameras so I would draw pictures of
how I imagined the photographs to look
like you can see the picture on the
right it’s a bit more technical it’s got
the angles of the lenses that I was
using and the f-stop and the guide
numbers of the lights we were using the
distances to the walls how reflective
the surface of the walls were trying to
build up the photograph in my mind
you can see here on the left sketch this
is in Titan
on a Ledge halfway up I wanted to make a
picture looking up to the ceiling so I
do the sketch and then we went into the
cave and tried to make the photograph
real trying get something similar now
due to the size and shape of Titan it’s
very vertical in nature it’s about 450
feet tall it’s the largest natural shaft
in the UK I thought the most impressive
picture push from the very top looking
straight down the void all the way down
to the bottom so we had to climb up into
the roof with all my camera gear and
somehow anchor my tripod to the wall
with the camera fix alla Deng straight
down and you can see here I had to climb
up there using ropes sitting on a seat
that I made I had a walkie talkie radio
so I could communicate with all the
people below me who had flash guns and
at the time I was still using the film
cameras now although the the pictures
were fairly impressive they were never
exactly why I dreamed about so I was
being hassled and persuaded by my
colleagues to get a digital camera so I
eventually after several attempts I
succumbed and bought my first digital
camera which is a Canon EOS 20 D and of
course with the luxury has been able to
see the photograph on the back of the
camera we were able to get that
photograph that I dreamed about and you
can see the ropes going all the way down
to the caver and in the bottom there and
there’s still a big void below that
maybe 200-foot below that black hole and
at the top of the picture you can see
the breakthrough window where our
surface shaft and tunnel which we’ve
driven through limestone and pop down
now unbeknownst to me at the time this
is my first attempts at documenting your
story and although these photographs are
like 10 maybe 12 years old now it’s
great with social media and Instagram by
sort of reinventing them almost you get
you’re bringing them back to life it’s
not like they’re lost in an archive
and for instance and I was also invited
to take the photographs for a book
French cave called the goofy burger now
at the time when Mount Everest was being
conquered in 1953 within the same week a
team of French caving of cavers were
exploring the den deepest cave in the
world called the goofy burger all within
about a week of each other the caves
about 3,500 foot deep here’s a picture
of our team and you can see how much
lighting equipment and camera equipment
we had to take on the ground for a
four-day camp leaving the surface behind
and going on into a cave for many days
is a very strange feeling knowing that
you’re going to spend all that time away
from the Sun it’s a little bit
depressing I must admit but our journey
through the cave was really cool we went
past this first section whether a wooden
platform which the French pioneers used
to haul and lower equipment it was
fascinating to see how their experiences
of doing exactly what we were doing at
the time but with like more primitive
lights to what we use these days it’s
also very cold very cold cave this is a
great technique to stay warm by using
the warmth of the candle once you’ve
negotiated the ancient series of the
goofer burger you then pop out into this
huge trunk passage and you follow it all
the way down passing some iconic
locations this one’s called late kudu
named after one of the original
explorers in dry weather conditions
which light completely disappears and
you can just walk through and then the
most iconic location in the cave is this
place called Hall of the 13 named after
the 13 French explorers it’s also home
to one of the first underground camps
there are two camps in the cave which
ones the first one and at this point we
make a telephone call basically back up
to the surface to get a weather forecast
to make sure it’s safe to continue down
into the cave because after the camp the
nature of the cave changes it becomes a
lot wetter this section caller Cascades
and it’s more it’s really important to
rig a rope all the way through the
section just in case the water levels
rise at this point we’re about 3,000
feet underground now another location
where there’s an iconic landmarks left
behind by the French pioneers you
imagine carrying that metal pole all the
way down through the entrance series
across that Lake to do the Cascades
would have been very challenging in 1953
and they used it to work to gain access
to the far wall of the cave where they
could rig a ladder to avoid the
waterfall below them nowadays we use the
rope again away from the waterfall make
them get safe and then finally you reach
the bottom of the cave where the water
levels are really really high and you’re
forced to swim through the other cave
passage it’s very low and if you haven’t
made that telephone call earlier to the
surface to get the weather forecast you
probably would want to go through this
section just in case the water levels
did rise and it got sealed off now
limestone cave they’re not the only
caves out there there are other caves as
well and I really wanted to document
cave inside glasses because they’re
ever-changing and the rhombus threats
and they’re disappearing due to climate
change
now Dasia cage or mullings
as they’re also known are formed when
surface meltwater disappears down in a
crack through the ice and winds its way
all the way down through the glass ear
to the bottom and they can be very
dangerous things to explore during the
day when there’s a lot of meltwater
which is why we tend to explore them at
night when hopefully the cold
temperatures of pro
the water however this doesn’t mean
setting an alarm it’s something like 2
a.m. in the morning and getting up out
of your nice warm sleeping bag and
making some kind of breakfast I’m not
sure if Gareth on the right there in the
red was half asleep when I saw this
picture it looks like he’s eating a pan
of snow as a poet or plan of porridge
knowing Gareth it probably snow and that
then we’d hike over the glass here
avoiding any crevices that might be on
the way and trying to find those Mullens
that we’d made GPS point GPS Waypoint of
before when we get to the entrance of
the mule in we get out all the equipment
that were going to use install and ice
screw into the ice trying to make it so
that when the Sun comes up in the
morning it’s not in direct sunlight so
it won’t melt and then rappel over the
edge of the glass here downwards trying
to rig the ropes away from any gullies
where the surface meltwater might come
in the morning and then once that once
on the ground and into the glass here
properly most of the Mullens that I’ve
explored in the past are very much
channeled into the ice like slides a
water park and the surface is really
hard and really slipping without what we
call crampons which are metal spikes on
our boots these things would be
impossible to explore and then sometimes
the glassy earth the moon turns very
vertical inside the glacier and you’re
forced to rig a rope and an Abbe sail
again rappel down or the times that the
water can carve a more horizontal route
through it like a canyon but we would
still rig a rope through just in case
the floor suddenly gives way and like in
the limestone caves the team are really
keen to make a survey of the muling and
from this they can monitor the changes
in melting and then if we’re lucky we
finally reach the bottom of the glass
here and we hit bedrock and these
passages can be absolutely spectacular
as you’re walking along on them on the
bedrock underneath the glass here and
the water’s carp is amazing sculpted
surface above
now here’s an example of the speed at
which these things can change we
discovered this Mullin in 2012 on an
expedition to the Goron a glass here in
Switzerland and we named it the Balrog
because it creaked and groaned made
these really strange noises and I
remember when we were exploring it I
would look up into the ceiling and see
TV sized rocks wedged up in the ice half
half out half in thinking to myself I
wonder how much protection my little
thin helmet is going to offer it should
be one of these things fall out and land
on my head
now that the end of the Balrog the
Merlin it ended in this pool of water
and two of the team that we were weird
with cave divers so they explore flooded
sections of cave passage underwater in
the UK and they were really keen to
explore underwater here but they didn’t
have their diving equipment with them at
the time so we decided that we would
come back the following year and dive
the the pool of water well we came back
the following year and sadly this Merlin
had completely disappeared melted away
just completely gone so this was
basically a one-time only opportunity to
see this natural wonder after that was
disappeared so after my Mullen and
glacier cave project my most recent
projects my most recent assignment
earlier on this year was to explore
caves in the quartzite to peruse the
tabletop Mountains in Venezuela now
these plateaus are very very isolated
and the caves are isolated further so
the team that we always were biologists
and scientists and they are really keen
to find unique forms of bacteria which
could well be unique to science
so like I say in the the main the main
reasons for this XD expedition was to
help the clinical microbiologist who are
on the team who studied the micro micro
bacterial resistance into antibiotics
and I mess it with this guy dr.
Francesco cero who was a cave scientist
and a cave Explorer an Italian cave
Explorer who won the Rolex award 2014
Rolex Award for enterprise for his work
inside these Venezuelan super ease and
we met up in a village called canaracuni
which that the foot of sorry sorry our
mats at Bowie these days I always take
with me a Polaroid camera because
they’re a great way to build up
relationships with the year the local
villages and they’re great gift to give
to the people the kids love them just
like I always carry a diary a
leather-bound diary and from this I’d
writes up the day the daily account of
what we’ve done make sketches of things
this is a sketch of the OEM tepui
and the village of Kovac where we stayed
as well now the surface of the
sorry-sorry ommited poo is heavily
vegetated but on the surface there are
these big holes are called seamless that
basically collapsed cave chambers which
are now open to the surface and it’s
things like there’s these big holes that
attract people like francesco now
getting on top of the puri is very
difficult landing a helicopter is
virtually impossible so whilst the
helicopter hovered for maybe a meter two
meters off the of the surface of the
floor we had to slowly gently get off
slide down onto the skids without making
any sudden movements not to distract the
pilot too much and slide off onto the
floor because the rotor blades are so
this far away from the trees and then
watch him turn around and fly off pretty
scary below the trees on sorry-sorry arm
it’s very very sick with the vegetation
but on the other Tipperary that we
explored how we answered period is
hardly any vegetation it’s very
from the wildlife on top of these two
periods fascinating you’ve got things
like these are fly catching carnivorous
plants on the left tree frogs parrots
flying around this expedition was
twofold
there was the micro bio their biological
project going on as well but also second
to that was a laser scanning team which
had gone into the cave to make a 3d map
of the cave and I wanted to hang out
with these guys because they were going
to spend 4 consecutive days on the
ground we had two camps one camp in the
cave and then one camp on the surface
not that far away and I took advantage
of the fact that the surface camp was so
close so I would set my alarm a little
bit earlier than these guys get up run
out onto the surface because on the
surface they had a cavity air and I had
a fresh coffee and I’m a big fan of
coffee so these guys just had Nescafe
them and then I would get back and these
guys are waking up like where have you
been I’ve been outside for a coffee but
there was a serious point that this is
where I can relay messages back to the
surface and the surface regime and then
tell them what we were doing me on the
day and the naked light tell us what
they were going to do so I was like the
human radio basically these are the
laser scanning teams tomorrow on the
Left Humberto in the middle and then add
it on the right-hand side
and that right photograph it’s a typical
scene working with the laser scanning
scene because each each scan took about
three minutes to perform and in that
three minute time we had to run off and
hide in order not to be scanned
otherwise we were going to be fixed
inside the scan as well whilst the
lasers are all firing around so we had
to finally little nooks and crannies to
hide from the scanner now it’s because
these caves are so remote and so rarely
visited that it was important to make
this accurate map of the cave because
you might never return who knows and at
this point in the cave and the
underground world meets the surface
world you basically walk out into one of
those Seamas one of those skylights but
from below
and it’s it’s a strange feeling when you
spent so long on the ground in total
darkness coming out with something like
this where there’s vegetation on the
rocks and who is flying around above
your head makes you realize how remote
and isolated you are it’s a fascinating
place that each time I pass this part of
the cave I was drawn to the shapes and
the patterns in the ceiling of the cave
passage and I was really keen to take a
picture here and finally towards the end
of the trip Francesco and the team they
helped me make this picture and other
parts of the cave that’s absolutely
spectacular it’s this kid part of the
cave it’s called thousand column gallery
of his reasons and the laser scanning
scene spent a long time here working
their way through the columns making a
really accurate map and it gave me a
great opportunity to take lots and lots
of pictures but not always with the
manpower you need to take these pictures
so this is a self-portrait of me running
through the columns with a derp in the
background another part of the cave
that’s really unusual is this part with
the with the lake but what’s spectacular
and unusual about the lake is the fact
that on part of the surface there’s a
skin of bacteria that’s growing on the
on the surface and it changes by day to
day where it where it is it’s really
unusual from my point of view it was
unusual because it reflected light like
oil does with a really rainbow coloured
pattern to it very strange now Albert
Einstein said that if you look deeper
into nature you’ll understand everything
better and by looking closer at some of
these caves what exists there I can
understand what he’s getting at in a way
like on the Left you’ve got these cool
gypsum formations and on the right hand
side the middle photograph that’s a moss
that’s been eaten from the inside out by
bacteria really really unusual
now just like francesco this guy in the
blue house am Jawara his name is from
Saudi Arabia he won the Rolex Award in
2014 for his work as a clinical
microbiologist and francesco invited him
to come along and help help help
understand basically what’s going on in
the cage with the bacteria he’s taken
some samples back to his University in
Queensland in Brisbane where where he’s
analyzing the bacterium samples
meanwhile it also gave Francesco time to
take some samples again for his work
that he’s doing back in Italy and then
on the surface he created like this
field laboratory close to one of the
femurs where he started doing the work
finally just before returning home I was
invited to take a short helicopter ride
onto another tip hue and explore another
case called Cueva Fantasma i didn’t
really know what we were going to and
the journey through the gorge in the
helicopter was absolutely fascinating
the rotor blades wherever’s are close to
the cliffs and in the distance I could
see that the gorge ended I didn’t know
where we’re going like I say and we got
closer and closer to the end and the
cliffs got closer to the rotor blades
and just when I thought we were going to
like a crash or something the pilot
turned right and entered this huge cave
entrance I don’t know if you guys can
see the helicopter parked up on the
floor there I mean I don’t know how high
it is it absolutely gianormous but it
was really spectacular to spend some
time here now visiting the superiors in
Venezuela and standing on top of one was
an absolute privilege and exploring the
caves and getting the opportunity to
photograph them like we did was a dream
come true Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about
the lost world on top of its operations
wonder what it would have made of the
caves and finally these photographs they
don’t take themselves and they involve a
lot of help from many many people to
bring in all the lighting equipment and
I’ve got a page on my website that lists
all the people who’s ever helped me so I
just like to take this opportunity to
thank all those people and my girlfriend
and I prepared this presentation for you
because she’s in a case I insisted
as well and also a National Geographic
grantee and I hope with the presentation
that we’ve kind of showing you a little
bit about the world on the ground and
try to break down some of those borders
remember you don’t have to be a an
astronaut or a deep-sea diver to
discover something new thank you
[Applause]
I’m going to talk to you a little bit
about photographing darkness when when I
originally got into caves and caving and
then a couple of projects and then
finally my most recent assignment
earlier on this year so caves and Kaiser
are first homes they offered us a canvas
to create our first artwork about 40,000
years ago and he also offered as a safe
place during the last ice age
scientists believe that if there is life
on Mars it’s probably underground
sheltering away from the harsh
atmosphere outside in essence in caves
but we’ve basically evolved from caves
but I feel like we’ve lost that
connection and I want to bring that back
and that’s why I use social media to do
this it’s a great tool to bring this
back now whenever I speak to an on caver
about caves the reaction is always the
same I couldn’t do that I’m
claustrophobic and I get you know in
lifts and I don’t like tight spaces
is it not muddy dirty dark have any
monsters down there does this look small
can you see the four people in the
picture does this look dark or dirty
okay there are some monsters but they’re
not that dangerous and they’re doing
small you got a trap spider silk worm
blind fish but they can be fascinating
too because they’ve evolved to live in
total darkness where there’s no light
it’s not always plain sailing it can be
tide and it can also be dirty as well
these guys are digging out rocks and
boulders that are blocking a passage and
they’re trying to find somewhere new
where nobody’s been before it can also
be dangerous you imagine being in this
case passage where the water suddenly
rises and you’re going to be trapped but
it could also be spectacular
can you see the two people here that
person there in the distance is about
300 foot from the ceiling and 300 foot
above the floor now in my work as a
photographer I’m trying to break down
the borders between reality and
perception what is real and I mean real
exploration when no human being has ever
gone before conservation and wildlife
photographer grind scary once told me
that 95% of the world’s oceans are
unexplored that it’s a staggering
statistic but I can’t stand here and
tell you how many caves are unexplored
because we haven’t found them yet we
have to actually go there and see them
for real to know that they exist you you
can’t see them from satellites from
space and it’s bringing images like this
back to the surface and sharing them
with thousands and thousands of people
on social media like Instagram that’s
what drives me
however Caves don’t always look like
this I have to be honest it’s only for a
split second when you set off the
flashes and the light that you see them
like this most of the time cave look
like this
and it was it was seeing this space
underground in a cave in England about
16 years ago that got me hooked
I was absolutely drawn to the
environment where there’s no light it’s
an alien world and I was fascinated with
with this space and I I want I wanted to
take pictures in in the case basically
this was my first case photographs that
I took 16 years ago when I was studying
fine art at university in Sheffield and
at the time I wanted to combine my love
of caves and caving with my passion for
art so that’s when I started teaching
myself cave photography I would practice
in a local cave called titan’ using
these film cameras that I borrowed from
University I wouldn’t tell them where I
was taking them because I don’t I don’t
think they’d let me take them if they
knew where they were going and then at
weekends I got involved in a digging
project so we we decided to sink a
mineshaft from the surface through solid
rock and then a tunnel all the way to
Titan then we would drill big holes with
a compressed-air drill like this one
here and then blow up the limestone with
explosives and then all the rocks and
rubble we had to cast along the tunnel
on this railway that we installed and
then winch it to the surface it took
four years to complete this project
sinking the shaft from the surface
making the connection through to Titan
now at the time like I said using the
film cameras so I would draw pictures of
how I imagined the photographs to look
like you can see the picture on the
right it’s a bit more technical it’s got
the angles of the lenses that I was
using and the f-stop and the guide
numbers of the lights we were using the
distances to the walls how reflective
the surface of the walls were trying to
build up the photograph in my mind
you can see here on the left sketch this
is in Titan
on a Ledge halfway up I wanted to make a
picture looking up to the ceiling so I
do the sketch and then we went into the
cave and tried to make the photograph
real trying get something similar now
due to the size and shape of Titan it’s
very vertical in nature it’s about 450
feet tall it’s the largest natural shaft
in the UK I thought the most impressive
picture push from the very top looking
straight down the void all the way down
to the bottom so we had to climb up into
the roof with all my camera gear and
somehow anchor my tripod to the wall
with the camera fix alla Deng straight
down and you can see here I had to climb
up there using ropes sitting on a seat
that I made I had a walkie talkie radio
so I could communicate with all the
people below me who had flash guns and
at the time I was still using the film
cameras now although the the pictures
were fairly impressive they were never
exactly why I dreamed about so I was
being hassled and persuaded by my
colleagues to get a digital camera so I
eventually after several attempts I
succumbed and bought my first digital
camera which is a Canon EOS 20 D and of
course with the luxury has been able to
see the photograph on the back of the
camera we were able to get that
photograph that I dreamed about and you
can see the ropes going all the way down
to the caver and in the bottom there and
there’s still a big void below that
maybe 200-foot below that black hole and
at the top of the picture you can see
the breakthrough window where our
surface shaft and tunnel which we’ve
driven through limestone and pop down
now unbeknownst to me at the time this
is my first attempts at documenting your
story and although these photographs are
like 10 maybe 12 years old now it’s
great with social media and Instagram by
sort of reinventing them almost you get
you’re bringing them back to life it’s
not like they’re lost in an archive
and for instance and I was also invited
to take the photographs for a book
French cave called the goofy burger now
at the time when Mount Everest was being
conquered in 1953 within the same week a
team of French caving of cavers were
exploring the den deepest cave in the
world called the goofy burger all within
about a week of each other the caves
about 3,500 foot deep here’s a picture
of our team and you can see how much
lighting equipment and camera equipment
we had to take on the ground for a
four-day camp leaving the surface behind
and going on into a cave for many days
is a very strange feeling knowing that
you’re going to spend all that time away
from the Sun it’s a little bit
depressing I must admit but our journey
through the cave was really cool we went
past this first section whether a wooden
platform which the French pioneers used
to haul and lower equipment it was
fascinating to see how their experiences
of doing exactly what we were doing at
the time but with like more primitive
lights to what we use these days it’s
also very cold very cold cave this is a
great technique to stay warm by using
the warmth of the candle once you’ve
negotiated the ancient series of the
goofer burger you then pop out into this
huge trunk passage and you follow it all
the way down passing some iconic
locations this one’s called late kudu
named after one of the original
explorers in dry weather conditions
which light completely disappears and
you can just walk through and then the
most iconic location in the cave is this
place called Hall of the 13 named after
the 13 French explorers it’s also home
to one of the first underground camps
there are two camps in the cave which
ones the first one and at this point we
make a telephone call basically back up
to the surface to get a weather forecast
to make sure it’s safe to continue down
into the cave because after the camp the
nature of the cave changes it becomes a
lot wetter this section caller Cascades
and it’s more it’s really important to
rig a rope all the way through the
section just in case the water levels
rise at this point we’re about 3,000
feet underground now another location
where there’s an iconic landmarks left
behind by the French pioneers you
imagine carrying that metal pole all the
way down through the entrance series
across that Lake to do the Cascades
would have been very challenging in 1953
and they used it to work to gain access
to the far wall of the cave where they
could rig a ladder to avoid the
waterfall below them nowadays we use the
rope again away from the waterfall make
them get safe and then finally you reach
the bottom of the cave where the water
levels are really really high and you’re
forced to swim through the other cave
passage it’s very low and if you haven’t
made that telephone call earlier to the
surface to get the weather forecast you
probably would want to go through this
section just in case the water levels
did rise and it got sealed off now
limestone cave they’re not the only
caves out there there are other caves as
well and I really wanted to document
cave inside glasses because they’re
ever-changing and the rhombus threats
and they’re disappearing due to climate
change
now Dasia cage or mullings
as they’re also known are formed when
surface meltwater disappears down in a
crack through the ice and winds its way
all the way down through the glass ear
to the bottom and they can be very
dangerous things to explore during the
day when there’s a lot of meltwater
which is why we tend to explore them at
night when hopefully the cold
temperatures of pro
the water however this doesn’t mean
setting an alarm it’s something like 2
a.m. in the morning and getting up out
of your nice warm sleeping bag and
making some kind of breakfast I’m not
sure if Gareth on the right there in the
red was half asleep when I saw this
picture it looks like he’s eating a pan
of snow as a poet or plan of porridge
knowing Gareth it probably snow and that
then we’d hike over the glass here
avoiding any crevices that might be on
the way and trying to find those Mullens
that we’d made GPS point GPS Waypoint of
before when we get to the entrance of
the mule in we get out all the equipment
that were going to use install and ice
screw into the ice trying to make it so
that when the Sun comes up in the
morning it’s not in direct sunlight so
it won’t melt and then rappel over the
edge of the glass here downwards trying
to rig the ropes away from any gullies
where the surface meltwater might come
in the morning and then once that once
on the ground and into the glass here
properly most of the Mullens that I’ve
explored in the past are very much
channeled into the ice like slides a
water park and the surface is really
hard and really slipping without what we
call crampons which are metal spikes on
our boots these things would be
impossible to explore and then sometimes
the glassy earth the moon turns very
vertical inside the glacier and you’re
forced to rig a rope and an Abbe sail
again rappel down or the times that the
water can carve a more horizontal route
through it like a canyon but we would
still rig a rope through just in case
the floor suddenly gives way and like in
the limestone caves the team are really
keen to make a survey of the muling and
from this they can monitor the changes
in melting and then if we’re lucky we
finally reach the bottom of the glass
here and we hit bedrock and these
passages can be absolutely spectacular
as you’re walking along on them on the
bedrock underneath the glass here and
the water’s carp is amazing sculpted
surface above
now here’s an example of the speed at
which these things can change we
discovered this Mullin in 2012 on an
expedition to the Goron a glass here in
Switzerland and we named it the Balrog
because it creaked and groaned made
these really strange noises and I
remember when we were exploring it I
would look up into the ceiling and see
TV sized rocks wedged up in the ice half
half out half in thinking to myself I
wonder how much protection my little
thin helmet is going to offer it should
be one of these things fall out and land
on my head
now that the end of the Balrog the
Merlin it ended in this pool of water
and two of the team that we were weird
with cave divers so they explore flooded
sections of cave passage underwater in
the UK and they were really keen to
explore underwater here but they didn’t
have their diving equipment with them at
the time so we decided that we would
come back the following year and dive
the the pool of water well we came back
the following year and sadly this Merlin
had completely disappeared melted away
just completely gone so this was
basically a one-time only opportunity to
see this natural wonder after that was
disappeared so after my Mullen and
glacier cave project my most recent
projects my most recent assignment
earlier on this year was to explore
caves in the quartzite to peruse the
tabletop Mountains in Venezuela now
these plateaus are very very isolated
and the caves are isolated further so
the team that we always were biologists
and scientists and they are really keen
to find unique forms of bacteria which
could well be unique to science
so like I say in the the main the main
reasons for this XD expedition was to
help the clinical microbiologist who are
on the team who studied the micro micro
bacterial resistance into antibiotics
and I mess it with this guy dr.
Francesco cero who was a cave scientist
and a cave Explorer an Italian cave
Explorer who won the Rolex award 2014
Rolex Award for enterprise for his work
inside these Venezuelan super ease and
we met up in a village called canaracuni
which that the foot of sorry sorry our
mats at Bowie these days I always take
with me a Polaroid camera because
they’re a great way to build up
relationships with the year the local
villages and they’re great gift to give
to the people the kids love them just
like I always carry a diary a
leather-bound diary and from this I’d
writes up the day the daily account of
what we’ve done make sketches of things
this is a sketch of the OEM tepui
and the village of Kovac where we stayed
as well now the surface of the
sorry-sorry ommited poo is heavily
vegetated but on the surface there are
these big holes are called seamless that
basically collapsed cave chambers which
are now open to the surface and it’s
things like there’s these big holes that
attract people like francesco now
getting on top of the puri is very
difficult landing a helicopter is
virtually impossible so whilst the
helicopter hovered for maybe a meter two
meters off the of the surface of the
floor we had to slowly gently get off
slide down onto the skids without making
any sudden movements not to distract the
pilot too much and slide off onto the
floor because the rotor blades are so
this far away from the trees and then
watch him turn around and fly off pretty
scary below the trees on sorry-sorry arm
it’s very very sick with the vegetation
but on the other Tipperary that we
explored how we answered period is
hardly any vegetation it’s very
from the wildlife on top of these two
periods fascinating you’ve got things
like these are fly catching carnivorous
plants on the left tree frogs parrots
flying around this expedition was
twofold
there was the micro bio their biological
project going on as well but also second
to that was a laser scanning team which
had gone into the cave to make a 3d map
of the cave and I wanted to hang out
with these guys because they were going
to spend 4 consecutive days on the
ground we had two camps one camp in the
cave and then one camp on the surface
not that far away and I took advantage
of the fact that the surface camp was so
close so I would set my alarm a little
bit earlier than these guys get up run
out onto the surface because on the
surface they had a cavity air and I had
a fresh coffee and I’m a big fan of
coffee so these guys just had Nescafe
them and then I would get back and these
guys are waking up like where have you
been I’ve been outside for a coffee but
there was a serious point that this is
where I can relay messages back to the
surface and the surface regime and then
tell them what we were doing me on the
day and the naked light tell us what
they were going to do so I was like the
human radio basically these are the
laser scanning teams tomorrow on the
Left Humberto in the middle and then add
it on the right-hand side
and that right photograph it’s a typical
scene working with the laser scanning
scene because each each scan took about
three minutes to perform and in that
three minute time we had to run off and
hide in order not to be scanned
otherwise we were going to be fixed
inside the scan as well whilst the
lasers are all firing around so we had
to finally little nooks and crannies to
hide from the scanner now it’s because
these caves are so remote and so rarely
visited that it was important to make
this accurate map of the cave because
you might never return who knows and at
this point in the cave and the
underground world meets the surface
world you basically walk out into one of
those Seamas one of those skylights but
from below
and it’s it’s a strange feeling when you
spent so long on the ground in total
darkness coming out with something like
this where there’s vegetation on the
rocks and who is flying around above
your head makes you realize how remote
and isolated you are it’s a fascinating
place that each time I pass this part of
the cave I was drawn to the shapes and
the patterns in the ceiling of the cave
passage and I was really keen to take a
picture here and finally towards the end
of the trip Francesco and the team they
helped me make this picture and other
parts of the cave that’s absolutely
spectacular it’s this kid part of the
cave it’s called thousand column gallery
of his reasons and the laser scanning
scene spent a long time here working
their way through the columns making a
really accurate map and it gave me a
great opportunity to take lots and lots
of pictures but not always with the
manpower you need to take these pictures
so this is a self-portrait of me running
through the columns with a derp in the
background another part of the cave
that’s really unusual is this part with
the with the lake but what’s spectacular
and unusual about the lake is the fact
that on part of the surface there’s a
skin of bacteria that’s growing on the
on the surface and it changes by day to
day where it where it is it’s really
unusual from my point of view it was
unusual because it reflected light like
oil does with a really rainbow coloured
pattern to it very strange now Albert
Einstein said that if you look deeper
into nature you’ll understand everything
better and by looking closer at some of
these caves what exists there I can
understand what he’s getting at in a way
like on the Left you’ve got these cool
gypsum formations and on the right hand
side the middle photograph that’s a moss
that’s been eaten from the inside out by
bacteria really really unusual
now just like francesco this guy in the
blue house am Jawara his name is from
Saudi Arabia he won the Rolex Award in
2014 for his work as a clinical
microbiologist and francesco invited him
to come along and help help help
understand basically what’s going on in
the cage with the bacteria he’s taken
some samples back to his University in
Queensland in Brisbane where where he’s
analyzing the bacterium samples
meanwhile it also gave Francesco time to
take some samples again for his work
that he’s doing back in Italy and then
on the surface he created like this
field laboratory close to one of the
femurs where he started doing the work
finally just before returning home I was
invited to take a short helicopter ride
onto another tip hue and explore another
case called Cueva Fantasma i didn’t
really know what we were going to and
the journey through the gorge in the
helicopter was absolutely fascinating
the rotor blades wherever’s are close to
the cliffs and in the distance I could
see that the gorge ended I didn’t know
where we’re going like I say and we got
closer and closer to the end and the
cliffs got closer to the rotor blades
and just when I thought we were going to
like a crash or something the pilot
turned right and entered this huge cave
entrance I don’t know if you guys can
see the helicopter parked up on the
floor there I mean I don’t know how high
it is it absolutely gianormous but it
was really spectacular to spend some
time here now visiting the superiors in
Venezuela and standing on top of one was
an absolute privilege and exploring the
caves and getting the opportunity to
photograph them like we did was a dream
come true Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about
the lost world on top of its operations
wonder what it would have made of the
caves and finally these photographs they
don’t take themselves and they involve a
lot of help from many many people to
bring in all the lighting equipment and
I’ve got a page on my website that lists
all the people who’s ever helped me so I
just like to take this opportunity to
thank all those people and my girlfriend
and I prepared this presentation for you
because she’s in a case I insisted
as well and also a National Geographic
grantee and I hope with the presentation
that we’ve kind of showing you a little
bit about the world on the ground and
try to break down some of those borders
remember you don’t have to be a an
astronaut or a deep-sea diver to
discover something new thank you
[Applause]
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