For many years I’ve had the pleasure of regularly writing and creating images for a number of international magazines. These assignments take me to some of the most exciting diving and wildlife locations around the world, and have provided me the opportunity to amass a treasure-trove of experiences and memories. My editors have been kind enough to allow me to reproduce some of my favorite pieces here…hopefully, you’ll find some moments of reading pleasure in the articles that follow.
“Unique, insightful, exciting, Face to Face is the result of Al Hornsby’s lifelong fascination with wildlife and animal behaviors, and of over 40 years’ work as a professional photographer and writer specializing in the underwater world, travel and Nature.
Al takes readers around the world, from the Americas, to Africa, and to Asia and the Pacific, through his camera lens. This stunning publication is peppered with extraordinary firsthand accounts of encounters with animals that are feared, revered and often misunderstood. These are the kinds of meetings and communions that most people can only dream about, made possible by Al’s special relationship with the natural world. Get closer to Nature than you ever thought possible…”
Asian Geographic/Ocean Planet
Since first being thrown overboard by my late father, Jacques-Yves Cousteau at the age of seven, I have been compelled to explore, to discover, to understand the secrets of the sea. An oft-quoted fact is that we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about our own ocean. How can we protect what we don’t yet understand? Ironically, as we have explored more, learned more about ecological processes within the ocean and made great discoveries of its vast diversity of life in just the past 50 years; but in the same time period we have degraded, overfished and changed the basic chemistry of the ocean faster than any time in recorded history. We now know the ocean sustains all life on this planet; but we are threatening the very fabric of what holds our rich tapestry of biodiversity together.
Al Hornsby’s newest book, Face to Face: Up Close with Mother Nature, gives us the intimate look at beauty and diversity of amazing animals from all regions of the world. These stunning images open our eyes to nature’s beauty and cultivates a gift of appreciation and gratitude in us all to do all that we can to protect what we love, our liquid blue planet.
These breath-taking pictures will give you an insatiable desire to discover, to experience, to understand. They will transport you on an adventure of discovery. A sense of wonder will become your part of the experience as you realise that ‘everything is connected’ on land and in the ocean world and that our everyday actions can have positive effects on protecting these special places. I know that when people see and feel these beautiful images and read Al’s personal stories of adventure, they will understand in a profound way the need to take care of our water planet.
Creative, optimistic, inspirational people are the force of a better future. Al is that type of person and through his beautiful images, he gives us that sense of personal connection to do all that you can to be a part of a sustainable future. I always say, protect the ocean and you protect yourself. Dive in and enjoy the beauty of the sea and land, nature’s work of art.
Jean-Michel Cousteau, President Ocean Futures Society
