Elmar Laubender

Elmar Laubender is a swiss photographer, underwater artist and expedition leader whose work is shaped by more than three decades of diving across remote marine environments. Through his ongoing series Ocean Art – See the Silence, he develops a photographic practice rooted in direct immersion, where light, movement and stillness become the primary elements of the image.

His photographs move away from spectacular representations of the underwater world. Instead, they focus on fragile encounters, subtle shifts of light, suspended particles or the quiet presence of marine life. In many works, reflections, textures and currents dissolve the boundary between photography and abstraction.

This approach is closely tied to his experience leading expeditions across different oceanic regions. His work carries both intimacy and distance: a tactile connection to the subjects he photographs and a wider awareness of the ocean as a fragile ecosystem. Natural light plays a central role in his process. It shapes images that feel atmospheric.

Produced as limited fine-art editions, Laubender’s photographs are conceived as lasting visual fragments drawn from environments that remain largely inaccessible. His work invites attention through stillness.