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ROLLING IN THE DEEP

Cunningham didn’t set out to become an underwater wildlife photographer, but the vocation blends her passions for the ocean and photography into a high-impact, conservation-minded career that has taken her around the globe and beneath the waves.

By day, Cunningham leads freediving and snorkel trips for adventurous tourists, camera equipment in tow. When she’s not guiding a group, she dives on her own, weighed down with gear in pursuit of both art and academic understanding.

It’s a career she has trained for her entire life.

Cunningham was a competitive swimmer growing up, and her family lived near a swimmable lake, the ocean and multiple pools in Florida. Shoulder injuries in high school ended her pursuit of elite competition, a detour that opened the door to freediving.

“When my shoulders would start to get sore and I wasn’t able to keep swimming, I would just practice apnea,” Cunningham said. “I would hold my breath at the bottom of the pool for as long as I could and do underwaters. And so I sort of accidentally trained myself as a freediver without necessarily knowing what it was.”

ALOHA, HAWAII

Though Cunningham grew up along East Coast waterways, it was through her parents’ love affair with Hawaii and frequent family trips there that her adoration of all things marine really bloomed.

“I fell in love with the Hawaiian Islands at a really young age, and I knew I wanted to end up out here at some point,” Cunningham said. But she didn’t expect that sharks would be the main draw. That came later, thanks to her studies at UTampa.

Environmental Studies Professor Dan Huber said Cunningham was a “standout student” in his shark research laboratory, where he uses a mix of biology, mechanical engineering, physics and biomechanics to research how sharks eat, how their jaws and spines work, and how ecology and variations in the environment impact physiology and behavior.

“It’s mostly knowledge for the sake of knowledge,” Huber said. But there is a vast range of possible applications for this kind of research — from improving conservation efforts to industrial design for everything from swimsuits and medical devices to vehicles being used in aquatic environments.

In short, the shark lab has helped to unravel some of the many mysteries around these often-demonized denizens of the deep, and Cunningham was an active participant advancing this knowledge. During her time as a marine science-biology major, Cunningham studied the fluid dynamics of hammerheads, a project Huber described as “really sophisticated.”

She was always “very focused on science for the masses,” which also makes her a scientist who’s likely to make a difference, Huber said. Bringing lab work to the public in a way that people can relate to and appreciate, without condescending to them or belittling their intelligence, can be a tall order for some scientists, who sometimes get tangled up in data and figures and struggle to articulate why the public should care.

That’s where Cunningham’s camera comes into the picture.

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DIGITAL REVOLUTION

When the first tiny, waterproof and mostly indestructible GoPro camera came out, Cunningham was quick to pick one up and take it with her when she swam and dived in the ocean.

When she and her family next traveled to Hawaii, she realized her ability to hold her breath and dive deep had unlocked a vast sunken kingdom to explore and document thanks to the powerful camera she toted with her.

“Looking back now, I’m like, ‘oh, those (images) are not very good,’” she said, chuckling. But “it was very exciting to be able to take photos and videos of the things I was seeing underwater that most people don’t see.” Coming of age alongside Instagram and other social media platforms, too, allowed her to share what she was witnessing.

Over time, Cunningham acquired better equipment and more photography skills. She also began guiding dive trips in Hawaii, giving her extraordinary access to a largely unseen realm.��

Her confidence and abilities grew alongside her insights into the creatures she met. A few years after graduating from UTampa, Cunningham decided it was time to document her underwater world in a more meaningful and professional way. She acquired a used DSLR camera in a high-quality underwater housing. She fell in love with photo editing, and soon she upgraded to a Canon R5 with an underwater housing watertight to 200-plus feet.

“I’m not hanging out at those depths,” she noted, as she’s usually freediving and relying on a single breath of air rather than scuba gear. But the hardy housing protects the camera well and allows her to change lenses depending on what she’s shooting.

HUNTING PREDATORS��

Cunningham loves capturing the silent beauty of all the creatures she encounters underwater, but she’s got a real soft spot for predators, especially observing how they manage the tasks of daily living.

“I love sharks, but in general my favorite interactions and moments to capture are those of predation where you see multispecies interactions and the food chain at work.”

Day-to-day however, her work varies. “You never know what the ocean, the animals or the divers are going to do or what you are going to see.”

And it’s that repeated return to the sea that has allowed her to build an impressive portfolio of images and interactions.

Her most unexpected capture was of the Blainville’s beaked whale, an extremely shy species that dives so deep, most humans never encounter it. But Cunningham got lucky one day as a pod swam by.

“We were attempting to view them from afar … when a juvenile of the pod broke off and approached me in the water. It did a little spin, returned to the pod, and then they disappeared into the abyss,” diving far away from the astounded surface dwellers who were left wanting just one more glimpse.

BRINGING CONSERVATION TO THE MASSES

From astonishing to spiritual, Cunningham’s many interactions have shaped her as much as her images have helped improve the public’s understanding of her beloved underwater world.��

Since going pro as a photographer, Cunningham has worked with organizations, companies and brands that use her images for travel marketing, sustainability education and other purposes.

“I really only work with companies or brands where I believe in the mission that they have or in their sustainability,” she said. For example, with some commercial work, the company might be releasing a product that designates a portion of proceeds go to research, conservation or educational causes.

And across the board, “with all my work, whether it’s guiding or shooting, I try to really take that scientific knowledge or the papers that I’ve been reading and translate that into an easier and more digestible format.”

Photography, she added, “is a really awesome and unique tool to be able to bridge the gap, because, in general, we’re a visual species and … images are a really good entry point to start discussing conservation and research. Photography and film are wonderful ways to help people care.”

Cunningham frequently hears from family, friends and strangers that her work has influenced them. “Whether it’s someone saying they tried freediving, went on their first shark dive, traveled to a specific destination, went to school for marine science, or donated to an ocean-supporting nonprofit because they were inspired by my work, it’s a very special thing to feel that my work is making a positive impact on people,” she said.

Clearly, Cunningham has an instinctual aptitude but also hard-earned skills in integrating science and art in ways that inspire others to care about our fragile blue planet and the many creatures who call it home.

“She’s always been very intentional in better understanding the ecology of the organisms and bringing these organisms into people’s lives,” Huber noted. “The manifestation of Taylor Cunningham to the public these days is very much an artistic one.” But it’s one “that’s backed up with hardcore, scientific chops.”

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For her part, Cunningham said she’s hoping to incorporate more research into her day-to-day life. “I’m more adjacently involved in the research nowadays, versus being the actual scientist, but I’m trying to find a balance. Hopefully with some new projects coming up, I’ll be able to flex those muscles a little bit more than I have over the last few years.”

No doubt that flex will be just as graceful and powerful as those of the sharks, whales, dolphins and more she so lovingly documents in her journeys beneath the waves.