The Philippines archipelago covers a vast area, but it seems it is only now being discovered by divers - or is it that the Philippines tourist organisation has only comparatively recently discovered divers as potential visitors?
Whatever the fact, there is huge new interest in the area, and projects such as Michael Aw's latest book of photographs are indicative of this.
True to its role as a promotional tool, this heavyweight coffee-table tome bears a preface written by the country's President.
Designed to be browsed, and without much text to give clues, Philippines: Heart Of The Ocean appears to record Michael's journey around the area and the marine life he encountered, and as such will be a useful reference to anyone about to venture out there.
With 27 such books now under his belt, Aw is without doubt a competent underwater photographer, but is this enough?
In the days of wet-processed film, photographers used to console themselves with the thought that if it had been easy, everyone would have been doing it.
In these latter days of digital image-gathering, it's become easy and everyone is doing it.
This is the weakness of this publication. My wife casually picked up the volume, flicked through a few pages and concluded wrongly that I had a copy because I had supplied many of the photographs. This is not so, but is understandable because, when it comes to animal portraits, everyone's photographs are tending to look very similar.
I would have preferred this volume to be laced with more of the unexpected, using unusual photographic solutions instead of a lot more of the same. I was also surprised that no-one bothered to spend a few moments to spot out detritus in some of the pictures.
After spending time away recently with a former National Geographic photographer, and seeing what he had made of the same subjects as mine, I knew I'd have to raise my game. It's one thing for a magazine, but is it enough simply to reproduce images of fishes in sharp focus and correctly exposed when it comes to a book that's meant to be treasured?
That said, if you're off to the Philippines with your camera, this book will be a good catalogue of what you can expect to find and, if you don't need to risk flooding expensive and capriciously acquired cameras under water, it might make a sensible alternative.
It enjoys beautiful reproduction on fine-quality paper, but if the price makes your eyes water, just consider putting together an iPhoto-printed book of your own efforts.
John Bantin
OceanNEnvironment
ISBN: 9781565924796
Hardback, 140pp, US $150
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