UPY 2025

UPY  Wrecks - Highly Commended
'World War One Submarine U89'
Rick Ayrton

This image is a 4 shot panorama. I was lucky enough to dive this wreck in summer 2018, conditions were very good with great visibility. After spending time around the wreck I went off onto the 60m sea bed at some way from the submarine to execute a panorama hoping it would stich together. I was delighted when I found that the process worked. U89 was sunk when it was rammed by HMS Roxburgh on 12th February 1918, all lives were lost on the submarine. It is always sobering to dive a wreck such as this where the crew remain entombed to this day.

Judge's comment: Deep wreck photography is a hugely challenging branch of underwater photography, and a few years ago any images from these pristine sites was celebrated. Now photographers are visiting these depths with lofty photographic ambitions and the results, like this, are jaw-dropping.
- Alex Mustard