When he was a child his parents took him to Menorca (Balearic Islands). Memories of white sand, clear waters and a blue sea, fish which he could touch with his hands, obligatory siestas and the fishermen’s cuisine. A child immersed in salt water and Mediterranean culture. Slowly without him realizing it, the “Big Blue” arrives!

He remembers having played with a toy regulator that was a Nemrod plastic scuba tank, in fact the yellow tank was just a float and the regulator hose the breathing tube. A children’s round mask and flippers were the rest of the diving equipment. This was the summer gift to his best friend which they shared during many hours on the beaches of Menorca.

He becomes an underwater fisherman at the age of nine and one year later, as a prize for his good school marks, his father gives him a rubber bands speargun model “Carabela Corto” from Nemrod, he gives me the details, because for Andrés everything has to have a name and has to be documented.

At the age of twelve he bought his first neoprene suit, which allowed him to spend more time lying in wait for sea-bass and groupers. During the years 1977-1978 he got his first diving certificate. In fact all his friends begun to dive and take underwater photographs at the same time.

He is quite happy to admit that he was a “victim” of the Cousteau series of documentaries when he was a teenager. The underwater images captivate him and for the first time he thinks of dedicating himself to Oceanography. In fact from the ages  of 14 to 17, he spent the weekends and summer holidays at the Zoological Museum of Barcelona, where he started working on animal  dissections, osteology, taxidermy and taxonomy.

When he was 17, this enthusiast of biology, loved to take photographs and films of wild life. He discovered the Beauliei 4008 ZM II Super 8 camera which, apart from having a high shutter speed (70 frames/sec), allows the change of the lens to obtain a telephoto effect with the standard 24X36 photography lenses. At that time amphibians, insects and birds were his priority as subjects.

 

A DOCTOR PASSIONATE ABOUT BIOLOGY.

 

At the age of 20, while studying medicine, he started underwater photography in the Mediterranean with his first Nikonos II which was followed by Nikonos IV-A and later the V model.

But this passion for wild life photography ended when he started working as an ENT doctor at the beginning of the 80s in Clinica Clarós, with his father and brother. His family, his work and the continual training periods in France, Belgium and Switzerland, didn’t allow him much free time.

During all this time “out of water” he specializes in medical video and photography, in consulting as well as in endoscopy or surgery, which allows him to have an important recognition in his specialty. Such a huge number of good images convert him in the supplier of the French CNRI ( Centre National de la Recherche Iconographique, Paris), who sells his medical photos around the world.

His family and his work leave hardly any time to progress seriously in the diving and knowledge of the underwater world. Just one week in summer….but since he was 40, the family took priority after the long working days. In summer he teaches his sons Andrés y Alejandro to dive and fish, always with a clear and environmental message: “!You only kill what you are going to eat!” 

After many family, personal and professional incidents….in 2007 he enters a new world: the collecting of underwater cameras.

 

Extract form the biographical article by Steven Weinberg.