JOSH SCHELLENBERG

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For years, his world existed in freefall—working as a skydiver and camera flyer, documenting the exact moment people stepped beyond fear and into the unknown. He would go on to complete nearly 2,000 skydives and dozens of BASE jumps, drawn to environments where precision, timing, and instinct meant everything.

But the next chapter would take him somewhere even less understood.

After becoming scuba certified in 2016, he entered the ocean with the same curiosity that once pulled him into the sky. By 2017, a camera was in his hands—and sharks were in his frame. What began as fear quickly gave way to something deeper: recognition.

Most of his diving is in Jupiter, Florida, one of the world’s most active shark diving regions, his work now focuses on close encounters with apex predators. But beyond the imagery lies a quieter purpose—documentation.

Each shark he photographs is studied, not just seen. Scars, pigmentation patterns, fin damage, and subtle markings become identifiers—allowing individual animals to be recognized over time. Through this process, sharks shift from anonymous silhouettes to known individuals, each with a history written across its body.

Having traveled across the globe in search of these encounters, his work sits at the intersection of exploration, science, and storytelling.


Because the more closely you look at a shark, the harder it becomes to see it as something to fear—and easier to understand it as something to protect.