Leigh Bishop

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Leigh Bishop is a professional HSE qualified diver regarded by many as Britain's foremost shipwreck photographer. Born in Northamptonshire, England in 1968 he later began diving at the age of 21 where he quickly established himself on the technical scene during its infantile years. Utilizing mix gas to explore deep wrecks around the British Isles since 1991 his later 1997 King Edward expedition off North Scotland became the first of its kind to explore wrecks beyond 100m depths in European waters. With little material available on the subject of deep 35mm stills he took to photography specifically for the Britannic 98 expedition carving his own path in a somewhat specialized field. Concentrating more so towards lost 20th Century Ocean liners his passion for this calibre of shipwreck has steered him to some of history's most famous shipwrecks, photographically cataloguing each one as he explores them.

Leigh Bishop June 2006

During several expeditions to the Lusitania he has accumulated almost ten hours physically on the wreck building the most extensive collection of images of the wreck to date. He has photographed the liner Transylvania sunk in 135m/445ft in the north Atlantic. During 2001 along with fellow members of the internationally renowned deep wreck diving team 'Starfish Enterprise' he brought back the first images of the lost gold treasure shipwreck 'ss Egypt' sunk in deep water off the edge of Biscay (Western Atlantic). Again in 2001 Leigh Bishop made the discovery of the famous shipwreck Flying Enterprise lost in 1952. In his opinion we are currently in the golden age of shipwreck exploration and even after a decade of specialized deep exploration himself, he alone believes his has only just scraped the surface of what's to come. In order to overcome depth & gas logistics of deep exploration he utilizes closed circuit technology to explore deeper shipwrecks year upon year. Together with the team he has documented for the first time countless shipwrecks through collective time capsulated periods. Established, as the team's main researcher Leigh had been responsible for much of the location work during their successful career throughout the decade of the 1990's. When not diving or researching a project he lectures & writes extensively having successfully published on the subject of deep wreck exploration throughout the world since 1994. Interestingly enough Leigh Bishop does not make his living through his writing, research and rare photographic material but has a career as a full time fire fighter with the Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service, the county where he also lives with his family. His images have been published within dozens of shipwreck books worldwide although his photographic & research efforts are now focused more towards his own personal projects. Nikon & Aquatica photographic equipment are the workhorse behind Leigh's shipwreck images, which today evolve more towards ambient light monochrome. As he describes every photographer eventually finds their creative inner-self, capturing classic shipwrecks on monochrome film using natural light & long exposures with a tripod is something special indeed. These classic images are the backbone of his entertaining presentations, as seen at some of the larger UK diving events.

Bio research & words reproduced for deep image courtesy of John Spencer

Notable shipwreck exploration & photographic projects to date

Britannic 98 - White Star line (Sister to Olympic & Titanic) Aegean Sea 400ft/120m
Egypt - P&O Liner carrying Gold Atlantic 420ft/127m
Transylvania -Anchor Line Liner Atlantic 445ft/135m
Lusitania - Cunard Liner Celtic Sea 307ft/93m
Justicia - White Star line liner Atlantic 231ft/70m
HMS King Edward VII - Pre dreadnought Battleship North Scotland 380ft/115m.
HMS Limbourne - Destroyer English Channel 280ft/85m
HMS Charybdis -Anti Aircraft cruiser English Channel 280ft/85m
HMS Affray - Submarine English Channel 280ft/85m
HMS M1 - Submarine English Channel 247ft/75m
Flying Enterprise - Cargo vessel Atlantic /western approaches 280ft/85m
U767- Important German Type VIIC WW2 UBoat lost of France 247ft/75m
HMS Audacious - Photographic assignment in the North Atlantic 231ft/70m click here
La Negra- 8,000-ton WW1 Steam ship lost in the English Channel.280ft/85m
RMS Tuscania - WW1 sensitive US liner loss, Photographic assignment North Channel 2002
Wilhelm Gustloff - The Nazi Liner that sank in the Baltic Sea with 7700 lives. 45m/150ft
Titanic Expedition 2003- The 2003 Scientific expedition aboard the Russian ship Keldysh
HMS Vandal - Lost British Submarine off North West Scotland 100m/330ft depth
Britannic 2003 The expedition that found the answers. Leigh Bishop lead photographer

Plus many more independent discoveries and wreck identifications.

Notable Publishing Merits

Leigh Bishop has successfully published articles, features and photographs in many best selling magazines as well as American & English books and major newspapers. His Images have been used in many advertising campaigns for the promotion of diving manufacturers equipment and popular publications. He has contributed to all of the UK's diving magazines although now specifically contributes to DIVER magazine and 990 magazine. As well as the UK market his material has been published extensively in Ireland, United States of America and Germany. Underwater images of shipwrecks and divers taken by Leigh Bishop have appeared on countless covers of various magazines. As well as writing commercially his photography has appeared on the cover of the British Society of Underwater Photographers magazine on more than one occasion and his deep wreck imaging articles have inspired other photographers. During the summer of 2003 he worked on a specific assignment to photograph the worlds largest sunken Ocean Liner,'Britannic' and of course on monochrome film. A wreck he had been waiting to photograph in Blk & White since his last expedition to the wreck in Sept 1998.

Public Speaker & Conference Merits full list of presentations dates forthcoming click here >>

Leigh Bishop has made many public presentations about shipwreck exploration, these include sell out lectures at the Royal Geographical Society in London, The Australian technical diving conference Sydney, Birmingham NEC, London Docklands Arena and many others. A full detailed list of presentations near you can be seen by clicking here >>

Being involved in ground breaking deep shipwreck explorations Leigh Bishop has been able to relay the story's behind these discoveries as a public speaker, lecturer and conference adviser to hundreds of people. His presentations were a direct result of successful image creation and as he admits something that makes his job as a public speaker somewhat easier even to audiences of up to 5-600 people. Originally asked to present on the Britannic 98 expedition to a local club he has now conducted dozens of presentations and lecturers around the British Isles. Together with fellow diving colleague Geraint Ffoulkes Jones, Leigh Bishop donated all of the proceeds of the Britannic talks to charity. His credits as a public speaker to date include the NEC DIVE show on two separate occasions, conferences in Scotland and Wales, Warwick University, Imperial Colleague London, Birmingham University as well as many UK dive clubs. In February of 2003 he was invited to speak at the International shipwreck conference at Plymouth university and later in 2003 made his first appearance as a speaker at the European photographic seminar 'Visions in the Sea' at Kings College Waterloo London. He continues to attend conferences and major dive shows were audiences continue to enjoy his presentations with evocative images from the wrecks as they are today.
Bio research & words reproduced for deep image courtesy of John Spencer

Images

From the left; Lusitania 2000 expedition using Open Circuit,
the NEC DIVE show 2002, Skin Deep Dive charter Weymouth England with 2001.
Finally using the Cis Lunar Mk4 mixed gas rebreather in Scotland 1995.

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