Heather Perry

Photographer Heather Perry’s passion for places surrounded by water led to a specialization in underwater and surface images, lifestyle, and environmental portraits. Heather started swimming competitively as a child in pools and in Long Island Sound, and knew from early on that she was most comfortable in the water. She went on to study marine biology and began her career as a photographer in tropical seas just a few years later.

Perry’s projects have taken her to marine ecosystems around the globe, including the Galápagos, Micronesia, California’s kelp forest, and the Caribbean, and her images have been published in National Geographic’s magazines, books, and online content, as well as in the New York Times and Smithsonian, among other outlets. She has also been a featured photographer with National Geographic Image Collection, where her imagery is represented, and has done commercial work for a variety of clients, including the National Geographic Channel, South African Tourism, and Sony. Heather’s work always comes back to people on and in water, as well as the transformative power of immersion in a marine environment over the course of time. She’s photographed stories on immigration issues, fishing communities, ship builders, and refugee populations in her home state of Maine, and has worked with swimmers in pools and oceans around the world. Perry regularly guides open water swimming adventures in the Caribbean and Hawaii, and enjoys sharing her photographic knowledge with travelers.