An Underwater Playground Through the Lens of Chris Leidy

Gil Walsh Interiors in West Palm Beach hosted a private event last month for the works of celebrated underwater photographer, Chris Leidy.

The great-great-grandson of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer and the grandson of fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau, Leidy has been diving since he was a child. His latest book, The Coral Triangle, focuses on the area located in the western Pacific Ocean that cradles the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.

The Palm Beach native says he’s never more at home than when he’s under the water. Leidy works to offer a glimpse into this secret world; existing in the shallows and shadows so as not to disrupt the natural habitat around him. The Coral Triangle is a nearly 4 million-square-mile area and home to 30% of all the world’s coral, a magnificent marine expanse that boasts the highest diversity of coral and fish species on the planet.

To collect the content for this project, Leidy spent two years living in Bali, the heart of the Coral Triangle. The result was a culmination of 110 illustrations that were first shared through fine art prints with galleries, and then made into a 192-page coffee table book with a powerful introduction from Fabien Cousteau, oceanic activist and grandson of undersea explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. The Coral Triangle invites readers to engage in a deeper understanding of the fragility of coral reefs and the devastating impact of climate change on coral reefs.

Leidy describes himself as an underwater abstract photographer, challenging his audience to see past what can be seen by the naked eye. “It’s up to me to cause my viewers to have to think about what they’re looking at and attempt to make sense of what I’m sharing with them,” he says.

His book is available online. Certain local purchases will benefit the COX Science center and Aquarium.

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