When you’re discovered by the world’s preeminent science-and-nature nonprofit, people tend to notice. Boca Raton photographer Ben Hicks discovered this firsthand when National Geographic published his image “Loggerhead Sea Turtle, Florida” in 2012. In the photograph, taken just below the shallow waters off of Palm Beach, the titular hatchling swims toward the surface of a gently breaking wave.
The image went viral. “That was when social media and Instagram started to take charge of our phones,” Hicks recalls, standing on the second floor of his capacious Boca Raton studio and gallery, looking down on a framed print of that very image. “It made a huge difference in the direction of how I made a living. It made its rounds online for months and months. From there, I made a lot of connections in the nature world.”
A native of Venice, Fla., Hicks moved to Boca to enroll at FAU, and in his freshman year he started to take to photography like, well, a turtle to water. He majored in Graphic Design and Photography, shot the first season of FAU football, and spent some 10 years primarily as a surf photographer, traveling the world for the most exciting waves.
Hicks is still an adventure photographer, but he’s also an environmentalist, spurred by his passion for documenting sea turtles in our increasingly polluted oceans. He won an Emmy for his cinematography on the PBS documentary “Troubled Waters: A Turtle’s Tale,” and was part of the Emmy-winning team behind “We Are All Plastic People Now,” a PBS doc from 2023 about microplastics. Hicks discusses his work in advance of his annual appearance at the Delray Affair.
What are some of the risks you’ve taken to get your best shots?
My most dangerous moments are shooting in large hurricane surf, and shooting large waves in Indonesia, in very shallow reefs. I’ve been caught in rip currents, thrown out to sea, almost at dark, numerous times.
What does it take to get that perfect shot in the wild?
It takes a lot of understanding weather—currents, the clarity of the water, and so on. And then studying species, and building relationships with biologists so they trust you to come on whatever they’re doing. And then obviously putting time in. The more time I’m on the beach walking in the mornings in the summertime, the better chance I’m likely to see something. It’s just a numbers game.
Do you end up deleting hundreds—even thousands—of images to discover one keeper?
I see the ratio as about five to 1,000 photos. If I shoot 1,000 [hatchling photos], I might get two to five images that’ll make it to being shared on social media or in print. … Some days I don’t get anything; they’re all out of focus, or the clarity’s bad, or it’s too rough. The ratio is pretty steep.
What parts of Florida most inspire your work?
We live in an area very close to the Gulf Stream. It is so close to our coast that it keeps a lot of nutrients running through our waters. That is what brings up our sea life, especially from Palm Beach and Singer Island down to Boca. You have all different kinds of species that visit our coast. Obviously sea turtles are very prevalent; a lot of nesting happens. But other stuff too; last summer I shot manta rays. There are also areas where there are seahorses and octopi—nowhere else in North America. The clarity of the water is the most important thing. That’s what keeps me here.
Doing this for so many years, what have you come to take away regarding the condition of our oceans?
Early on, I realized that my images were impacting people in more than just an emotional way, but also in the story of survival for a turtle. In their first part of life, there is such a small number that make it—one in one thousand. I adapted environmental awareness with the images as soon as I realized it. I said, I can make a difference by not just showing this turtle but also highlighting the fact that, we can all make a difference just by changing some of our common habits. With that said, plastic is a huge problem, not just for turtles but for everything in the world.
I’ve gone down different paths to be a part of environmental campaigns and to donate my images to those campaigns. Because the majority of us understand that the ocean is, for the most part, the lungs of the planet.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Ben Hicks will be selling his work at the 62nd-annual Delray Affair
WHERE: Downtown Delray Beach
WHEN: April 12-14
COST: Free
CONTACT: 561/278-0424, delrayaffair.com
This article is from the April 2024 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
