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Doga Ergun, a 16-year-old underwater photographer who grew up at his family's dive center in Izmir's Cesme district, has spent roughly six years capturing images that reveal not only the sea's natural beauty but also the damage human activity has caused to marine ecosystems.
An 11th-grade student at Cesme Haci Murat-Hatice Ozsoy Anatolian High School, Ergun grew up immersed in the underwater world at Derin Doga Dive Center, which his father, Erdinc Ergun, has operated in Cesme since 1999.
From a young age, Ergun assisted his family and visiting divers aboard the boat before gradually progressing from swimming and snorkeling to scuba diving, a path that eventually led him toward underwater photography.
He began by using his father's small camera to take his first photographs, later switching to his older brother's camera to refine his technique before saving money from exhibitions and other work to purchase his own equipment.
Ergun has held four photography exhibitions in Cesme and has entered several international competitions, gaining wider recognition for his underwater work along the way.
Among his most notable achievements, Ergun placed among the top nine entries out of roughly 430,000 submissions in the Youth category of the Sony World Photography Awards, earning his photograph a weeklong exhibition at Somerset House in England.
He also placed third in a photography competition called "Youth of the 21st Century" held in Lithuania, and his photographs have since been published in magazines in England.
Ergun said his central aim as a photographer is not simply to showcase the sea's beauty but to highlight the impact of human activity on the natural world, adding that he hopes to expand his work into documentary filmmaking alongside photography in the future.
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