TITLE: In the Heart of Planet Earth

In the heart of the earth, where time stands still and the sun never reaches, lies a world of breathtaking stillness. This photograph captures the relationship between the fragile human presence and the monumental architecture of flooded caves. It is a tribute to the silent, primordial beauty of our planet’s hidden water veins.

Captured during a cave diving expedition in Yucatan, Mexico, this image required a sophisticated lighting setup due to the absolute darkness inside the cave systems. Through a careful play of light and shadow, I sought to capture the cathedral-like scale of the underground world. I used a total of five high-powered underwater strobes: two mounted on the camera housing and three strategically positioned throughout the cave space. These remote units were synchronized using optical triggers to ensure perfect timing and balanced illumination in the absolute darkness of the cave system.

AUTHOR: Petr Polách (Czech Republic)

I come from the Czech Republic. I have been photographing for a long time and after I started scuba diving in 2003, I took this hobby to the world under the water as well. I have visited different parts of the world, from warm, southern oceans and seas, through geographically moderate places to northern areas with very cold water. In recent years I have been focusing on photography in flooded cave systems in the Yucatan. This Mexican peninsula has the largest flooded cave systems in the world. The landscape of flooded caves is characterized by the unusual beauty of its scenery, stalactite decoration, variety of shapes and sizes of cave spaces. The caves are characterized by an unfavourable situation, namely absolute darkness, which is a great challenge for the photographer - how to light the scene? When photographing "over water", I mainly focus on landscape and street photography.