Rocking the boat: ocean photographer of the year

In this blog, Ollie Taylor, SS Great Britain’s Head of Public Programming and Experience, gives an insight into how reuse and sustainable thinking informed the presentation of “Ocean Photographer of the Year” next to the hull of Bristol’s iconic ship.

Under the glass sea

Imagine if you could talk to the hull of a ship. What would it say? What might it tell us about all the oceans it had sailed through, the creatures it had met, the underwater lives that had played around its bows, or trailed in its wake?

The Dry Dock at SS Great Britain allows you to take such a dolphin’s eye view of this majestic, world-changing vessel. Until 28 June, visitors can also take in the “Ocean Photographer of the Year” exhibition there, 116 of the best images taken in 2025, selected from over 15,000 submissions from photographers from across the world. It is wonderful to view these images in such a setting with the watery light from the glass sea playing over the photographs.

The exhibition is a celebration of our beautiful blue planet, as well as a platform to highlight the many plights it is facing. From breathtaking underwater images to stunning coastal drone shots, the full spectrum of ocean life is revealed. This is an extraordinary collection of photography created by extraordinary ocean photographers: divers, surfers, and sailors, uniting to dazzle the world. SS Great Britain has partnered with Oceanographic Magazine and Blancpain to create the exhibition, recognizing the vital role the ocean plays in all our lives and the role our lives play in the future of the ocean.

Pairing sustainable and commercial thinking in exhibition-making

I’ve been curating award-winning exhibitions and exhibits around themes of water and climate impact for the last few years – from Bath Abbey’s innovative use of the waste water from The Roman Baths, which reduced their carbon footprint by 50%, to Tessa Campbell Fraser and Winchester Cathedral’s “Whales” exhibition, which highlighted the problem of “ghost netting” in our oceans. Presenting “Ocean Photographer of the Year” at SS Great Britain has been another great opportunity to highlight the need for us to care for our oceans.

It’s also been an opportunity to embed sustainable thinking into exhibition-making practice. Temporary exhibitions of the scale of “Ocean Photographer of the Year” are new to SS Great Britain. So everything had to be made from scratch. However, that didn’t have to mean everything had to be new.

The majority of the prints exhibited have been reused from an earlier show in London and after the exhibition ends in Bristol they will be presented in Lichfield. Where a handful of new prints were needed, consideration was given to the material chosen. Because of the complex environment of the Dry Dock, the desire for any new prints to travel and have a life beyond the presentation in Bristol, and for the new prints to share the same aesthetic as the Foamex prints used in the London show, hexacomb (cardboard) was discounted. However, Sintrex was chosen as a PVC-free alternative that is more widely recycled than Foamex.

The frames the prints are displayed on were manufactured by SS Great Britain’s in house team. This reduced costs and also cut down on emissions from transporting setworks made elsewhere. They were designed to be reused and constructed without glue so they can be taken apart, stored, and reconstructed when needed again. The 50m of lighting for the exhibition has been repurposed from SS Great Britain’s old Dockyard Museum giving this otherwise redundant material a second life. Sustainable and commercial thinking can be powerful partners in the process of exhibition making.

Opening up Ocean Photographer to new audiences

Innovative programming has also opened ways for audiences to engage more deeply with the exhibition, be it the joy and exuberance of the surfers in the Adventure category or the urgent and hope-filled need to conserve our precious oceans. This half-term Kids Go Free to the exhibition and can also ride a surf-simulator, become sea-creatures with fun face paints, and enjoy The Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo. Find out more. On 8 June, a unique show, Dive, is being presented in partnership with Ocean Rising for World Oceans Day. And there are also opportunities to take in the exhibition after hours.

Taking inspiration

However you want to experience them, the images in the exhibition, from all over the globe, can connect us to changes we can make locally that support ocean life. In Bristol’s vibrant cultural sector, there’s an opportunity for us to work more closely together on our climate and nature challenges, something we explored at the recent Climate Action Programme visitor attraction workshop.

There is also potential for us to share resources in the shows we make. AHI’s Exchange is a digital platform that would enable us to share materials equitably in the city, region, and beyond. It helps museums and heritage practitioners give exhibition and interpretive materials a second life. It enables organisations to share unwanted items, from display cases and panels to props and equipment, with others who can reuse them. By keeping resources in circulation, the Exchange reduces waste, lowers the environmental impact of exhibitions, and improves access to materials for organisations working with limited budgets.

Ocean Photographer of the Year is on until 28 June at SS Great Britain. If you haven’t been, bring a friend, dive in, take the plunge, and be inspired by this beautiful collection of images!

SS Great Britain are a member of Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership’s Climate Leader’s Group. Learn more about their climate action journey in this case study.