{"id":180979,"date":"2025-12-08T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T12:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/180979\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T12:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T12:00:09","slug":"an-interview-with-jialing-cai-2025-female-fifty-fathoms-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/180979\/","title":{"rendered":"An interview with Jialing Cai, 2025 Female Fifty Fathoms winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time+Tide<\/a><\/p>\n

Jialing Cai\u2019s journey to becoming an acclaimed rising star in the world of ocean photography<\/a> has been somewhat unexpected. The 27-year-old Chinese marine biologist and underwater photographer didn\u2019t grow up by the ocean \u2013 she grew up 1,500 kilometres from one, in landlocked Chongqing, China \u2013 yet today, her blackwater photography reveals a world most divers never see: trillions of plankton and tiny organisms ascending from depths of 500 metres or more, every night, in waters around the globe. It\u2019s these tiny creatures that she\u2019s become a specialist in photographing, with her vivid shots of these curious animals having secured her the prestigious Ocean Photographer of the Year<\/a> award in 2023, and now the Female Fifty Fathoms prize in 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n

Our Managing Editor, Jamie Weiss, had the chance to chat with Jialing about her amazing photos (and new Blancpain watch!) as well as what inspired her to become an ocean photographer and how she wants to inspire other female ocean photographers when she was in Sydney for the opening of the Ocean Photographer of the Year 2025 exhibition at Australia\u2019s National Maritime Museum.<\/p>\n

Jialing\u2019s journey began in a university lecture hall, where she first learned about diel vertical migration: the nightly procession of microscopic life from the deep sea to the surface. \u201cI was shocked,\u201d she recalls in our interview. \u201cIt means that even if I don\u2019t visit the deep<\/a>, deep sea like 500m, 1,000m, as long as I\u2019m willing to throw myself out in the open at night, the deep sea would come to me.\u201d That revelation sparked everything: learning camera basics, diving certification, and ultimately, pioneering work documenting zooplankton through blackwater photography.<\/p>\n

\"\u00a9Image courtesy of Jialing Cai<\/p>\n

The image that captured the judges\u2019 attention this year, including Blancpain\u2019s own ocean exploration champion, Laurent Ballesta, was taken during her first-ever blackwater dive<\/a>. A juvenile wunderpus octopus, surrounded by larval shrimps, crabs, and worms, hangs suspended in the water column like \u201ca living tiny astronaut.\u201d The composition is pristine, the subject otherworldly. That it came from her inaugural dive speaks to something deeper than technique: obsession with discovery.<\/p>\n

\"jialingJialing\u2019s new Blancpain.<\/p>\n

While Jialing explained to us that she mostly relies on a dive computer when she\u2019s in the water, she also loves wearing her Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 38mm<\/a>, which she describes as being like \u201ccarrying a vessel of diving history.\u201d She acknowledges that while modern diving instruments handle the data and precision work today, the Fifty Fathoms remains \u201ca reminder of where it all began\u201d\u2014a fitting symbol for a photographer whose work bridges traditional marine biology and cutting-edge imaging technology.<\/p>\n

\"\u00a9Image courtesy of Jialing Cai<\/p>\n

Jialing joins a lineage of pioneers, nominated by her peers and judged by an esteemed panel. \u201cI feel like by getting this award, I\u2019m getting more exposure,\u201d she says. \u201cI think I\u2019ll gradually get into a place where I will be the one in the position to help other aspiring young women, too.\u201d Her advice for those starting out? \u201cIf you do not grow up by the ocean like I am, don\u2019t feel that you\u2019re less entitled to explore the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is the Ocean Photographer of the Year?<\/p>\n

\"jialing<\/p>\n

First introduced in 2021 by Oceanographic Magazine in partnership with renowned Swiss watchmaker Blancpain (which, if you\u2019re a regular reader of Time+Tide, you\u2019re likely more than passingly familiar with), the Ocean Photographer of the Year (OPY) is a prestigious annual competition showcasing stunning underwater and ocean-related photography, celebrating the sea\u2019s beauty while highlighting urgent conservation needs, with winners selected across multiple categories like Wildlife, Fine Art, and Conservation, culminating in an overall title awarded by Oceanographic Magazine and Blancpain.<\/p>\n

Jialing won the overall OPY prize in 2023, and this year, in 2025, won the Female Fifty Fathoms Award, which specifically celebrates inspirational women in ocean photography. Unlike the other OPY categories, the Female Fifty Fathoms prize is peer-nominated. Jialing explains that it\u2019s incredibly meaningful to have Blancpain\u2019s support, joking that she\u2019s really \u201cfelt like a celebrity\u201d, travelling with the Blancpain team around the world this year to exhibit her photos. It\u2019s yet another example of Blancpain\u2019s Ocean Commitment<\/a>, the luxury watchmaker\u2019s long-standing initiative to support ocean exploration, awareness, and conservation.<\/p>\n

Jialing Cai\u2019s photographs, along with the full Ocean Photographer of the Year 2025 exhibition\u2014co-presented by Oceanographic Magazine and Blancpain\u2014are now showing at Australia\u2019s National Maritime Museum in Sydney. The collection includes overall winner Yury Ivanov\u2019s mesmerising \u201cladybugs of the sea\u201d and work from photographers across categories spanning Wildlife, Fine Art, Conservation, and Human Connection. The exhibition is running from 6 November 2025 to\u00a03 May 2026: find out more here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Time+Tide Jialing Cai\u2019s journey to becoming an acclaimed rising star in the world of ocean photography has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60,64427],"class_list":{"0":"post-180979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-metashort"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}