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Ikuo Nakamura's lifelong fascination with diving and underwater photography began when he was 20. Today, he is the head of Squall Corporation, an underwater film production company, and focuses his lens on the ocean, nature, people, and the environment. |
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"The day I saw a diver with an underwater camera, I knew immediately what I wanted to do."
Until I was 20, I really wasn't very interested in photography. I had briefly owned an Olympus Pen - a very popular camera at the time - when I was a third-year senior high school student, I didn't take many photos and soon got rid of it. Looking back, it seems strange. Maybe I had an inkling of my future profession.
After graduating from high school I worked for a large electrical appliance retailer in Tokyo, but soon left and started jumping from job to job. One moment I was the driver for a company president, the next I was working in a liquor store. These experiences were necessary for me and were certainly not a waste of time. The elderly lady who owned the liquor store, in particular, taught me a great deal about business. That's why I'm still a pretty good salesman. Actually, I always thought that I'd find my true vocation one day, even if it was long after I left school. I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew it was out there somewhere, just over the horizon.
Because I loved to travel, I used to go to the sea around the Izu peninsula on my days off from the liquor store. One day, I saw something that really surprised me on the Manazaru coast - something strange with a tank on its back emerging from the sea. At first I thought it was some kind of monster, half fish, half man, but it had a camera hanging from its neck. I'd never seen a diver before, and I actually thought the tank was a fire extinguisher! I couldn't believe you could take photographs under water. It was then that I realized that underwater photography was the vocation I'd always known I'd discover. At that moment I felt something close to destiny at work.
I immediately withdrew all my savings and bought an underwater camera and diving gear. I went diving whenever I could, even in the winter, doing my best to master underwater photography.
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