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Brett Seymour is the underwater photographer and production editor for the National Park Service's (NPS) Submerged Resources Center (SRC), based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe is not a hotbed for underwater photography, but it affords Brett a quality mountain lifestyle in between field projects, which keep him traveling for four to nine months each year.
A graduate of Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, with a degree in Television and Film Production, Brett began working with the SRC in 1994. The SRC is responsible for inventorying and documenting submerged archeological sites in more than 2.5 million acres of underwater resources, in more than 100 national parks throughout the country. Working with the SRC provides Brett the opportunity to dive and photograph some of the nation's most historically significant shipwrecks in some of the most spectacular areas.
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Left Photo : NPS Archeologist, Matt Russell tends a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) into a hatch on the USS Arizona. The Arizona was never penetrated in respect to the nearly 1,000 men entombed inside; therefore, this ROV provided the first interior images for research since salvage divers worked the wreckage in 1943. |
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Brett has worked on many projects over the last seven years. Most recently, during the summer of 2000, he spent four months as project photographer on the recovery of the H.L. Hunley, a Civil War Confederate submarine that sank February 17, 1864, off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. The sub was buried under the sediment for more than 136 years, with its crew of nine presumably still aboard. A combined team of archeologists and commercial divers recovered the submarine using surface supplied dive equipment. Brett documented the sub and recovery operations on film and video. Recently, National Geographic Television aired the underwater images Brett provided during two episodes of National Geographic Explorer. Another National Geographic documentary about H.L. Hunley, airing this summer, will feature Brett's images.
Currently, Brett is working with the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii to coordinate a live underwater broadcast in June, from the Arizona to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. He will also produce a program commemorating the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and USS Arizona's sinking December 7, 1941.
Above left: Never fired at an enemy, the 14” guns of the USS Arizona rest silently in the murky waters of Pearl Harbor. Much of the Arizona was salvaged during WWII, but these guns were not discovered until NPS research began in 1983.
Middle Left: Never fired at an enemy, the 14” guns of the USS Arizona rest silently in the murky waters of Pearl Harbor. Much of the Arizona was salvaged during WWII, but these guns were not discovered until NPS research began in 1983.
Left: Hunley project director, Dr. Robert Neyland, investigates the forward hatch of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley. The first submarine to sink an enemy ship was recovered in the summer of 2000,after it disappeared 136 years ago.
(Photo courtesy of FOTH) |
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Brett was the NPS project photographer on a joint NPS / National Geographic Society field project to image interior cabins of the USS Arizona. This project produced the first interior images of an aging American icon since salvage divers last explored the wreck in 1943. Brett is scheduled to again return to the USS Arizona in June 2001 as project photographer and underwater camera on a Termite Arts/Discovery production. This production will examine in detail the December 7 attack and the loss of the USS Arizona.
Brett has logged more than 100 working dives in four years of project photography on the 608-foot sunken battleship, a site that is closed to all recreational diving or snorkeling. In addition to his own documentation work, he was the NPS technical underwater consultant to Disney Productions on the recent underwater film shoot for the upcoming Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer production entitled, Pearl Harbor, to be released on Memorial Day.
Left: Photographer Brett Seymour prepares to be lowered into the water off Charleston, South Carolina to document the Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley.
(NPS photo by Matt Russell.)
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