Scott "Gutsy" Tuason

b. 1983, California

Scott "Gutsy" Tuason is one of today's top underwater photographers. He has travelled the seven continents, dived most of the world's oceans and seas, published award-winning books, exhibited in eight cities and written extensively on diving and travel. From the tiniest nudis to the most intimidating sharks, Gutsy hunts marine life down and shoots them with a patience and precision honed by more than three decades of diving the world's seas and photographing their inhabitants.

Gutsy's photographic work consists of both large-scale shots of underwater life and "abstract" works, which are close-ups of unique shapes, colors, and patterns found only in the sea. In the 2013 Abacus Capital Calendar we feature a retrospective of Gutsy's never before exhibited Abstracts. The Abstracts are each unique in subject matter, and range from hard coral detail to jellyfish taken at close range. The result is a series of explosive images, the photographer's subjects amplified beyond immediate recognition.

Gutsy drills down into the heart of his subjects, distilling them into a burst of color, a swaying pattern, or an original cluster of shapes. The proximity of the image creates the "abstract" element in his works and imbues them with calmness, a sense of musicality, and a rhythm found in poetry. The Abstracts differ sharply from Gutsy's more traditional large-scale shots, which feature a dizzying array of sea life from miniscule "Nemo" anemones to whale sharks the size of a house.

Born in Sydney and raised in Manila, Gutsy started diving as a child of eight, and has since logged over 4,000 dives. When he was a teen his father introduced him to underwater photography, and since then he has taken tens of thousands of underwater shots from the Darwin Arch in the Galapagos to the frozen waters of Antarctica, by way of the Red Sea and the Hawaiian coast. Whether it's a spawning session in Palau, or a feeding frenzy in the eastern cape of South Africa, Gutsy is driven by the thrill of the chase, and the adrenalin rush of being smack in the center of natural chaos. According to him, "My real gratification lies in sharing the beauty of the ocean and igniting the spark in others that will help preserve it."

Gutsy's permanent exhibits are notably displayed in the United States at San Diego's Natural History Museum, Las Vegas's Mandalay Bay Aquarium and San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences. He has also had temporary exhibits at the World Expo in Lisbon, Portugal in 1998, the World Festival of Underwater Images in Antibes, France in 2000, Silver Lens Gallery in the Philippines, Studio 555 in Sausalito, USA in 2005, WWF - Makati City, the Philippines in 2006, The National Museum of Singapore, the World Expo in Zaragoza, Spain in 2008, NOW Gallery in Makati City, the Philippines, the University of Tampa in Tampa, USA in 2011, and most recently at the United States Embassy in Baguio City, Philippines in 2012.

Gutsy's works have been published in many books and magazines, notably Asian Diver, Philippines Diver, Sport Diver (UK), Action Asia (HK) and Sports Diving (Australia).

His first book, The Philippine Coral Reets in Watercolor, written in 1997, highlights the restoration and conservation of the Philippine coral reefs. Anilao, which he co-authored in 2000 with Eduardo Co-Unjieng won the grand prize at the World Festival Underwater Images in France, and it also earned the "The Best Photography Book Award" at the Philippine National Book Awards in 2000. "Winning that award was pretty cool, going to France to receive that award. It was like the equivalent of the Oscars or the Cannes Film Festival, but for underwater," Tuason said. Gutsy continued with his third book, The Ultimate Orient - Philippine South Sea Pearls in 2002. Bahura, a book he published in 2004 has his final selection of World Festival of Underwater Images.

Gutsy is also editor-in-chief of Lonely Planet Magazine Philippines, which gives him ample time to explore and popularize his native Philippines. He heads the Philippine chapter of Shark Savers, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing the collapse of shark populations through awareness and action.

"Without sharks, there would be nothing to shoot."