Exhibit at Sea Rocket Bistro features local underwater photographer Neal Matthews

By Elena Buckley | SDUN Reporter

Since 1972, local underwater photographer and journalist Neal Matthews has been taking spectacular underwater pictures, exposing the stunning colors, exotic animals and magnificent plant life of San Diego’s underwater world.

His latest collection, an exhibit of 13 watery wonders, titled “Home Waters: A San Diego Life Aquatic,” is currently on display in the front room at Sea Rocket Bistro, 3382 30th St., where it will continue to awe viewers until the end of July.

The show, said Matthews, “came out of nowhere. These had always kind of been private treasures of mine. I never even considered having a show.”

But when Elena Rivellino, the owner and general manager at Sea Rocket Bistro saw them, she proposed acting as curator for an exhibit, hand picking a selection of Matthews’ work based on which subjects—including humans, plants and sea life—would accent Sea Rocket’s décor and menu.

Matthews, who lives in North Park, was a Navy diver and survival instructor in San Diego when he began his underwater photography career. Since then he’s gone on to explore oceans around the world, and both his photography and writing have been published in numerous publications including Travel Holiday, The Union Tribune, The Reader, Boating and more. Matthews was also a former contributing editor for Travel Holiday, Boating and Popular Photography.

He took photos in Sea Rocket’s exhibit taken in waters all over San Diego, including La Jolla, San Clemente and even the Balboa Park Lily Pond and Japanese Friendship Garden, where instead of diving Matthews held his underwater camera just below the surface. Some photos are difficult to obtain close-up shots, while he took others from a cage, just inches from sharks roaming 30 feet below the surface.

Most of the shots are close to the surface, nearer to natural light and life-rich kelp beds, although Matthews took some photos 100 feet below the surface, where he explored the shipwreck off of San Clemente.

“One of the things that [this exhibit] shows is that wildlife is so close to us and such a big part of San Diego,” Matthews said. “It kind of binds us in a way. You know, three kicks off the beach and one kick down and you’re in wilderness. I like people to remember that.” Matthews explained that although he tries to sharpen the photos in the editing process, he mostly likes to work with natural light available under the surface, only resorting to his flash when necessary.

“To me that makes the underwater world look a little bit phony,” Matthews said. “Because as a diver, once you leave the surface you start losing color right away. Everything’s basically green, grey after about 20 feet so you don’t see those colors you see in the photographs with the naked eye.”

The photos span 40 years, showing the changing underwater environments, and capturing “ongoing moments,” as Matthews put it. He explained that over time, the amount of wildlife in the ocean has changed, “more or less disappearing.” He said, however, that venturing beneath the surface is still worth the effort in many ways, because it’s still a “wild ocean.”

“When I first started in ’72 people told me, ‘Oh, you should have been here 30 years ago,’” Matthews
said. “But at that time it was just electric under the surface, and over the years there’s just been less and less in terms of wildlife. But there’s still a lot there.”

The photos show a timeline of San Diego’s underwater landscape, and Matthews said that he hopes this exhibit will bring that to those who can’t get beneath the surface themselves, to show them “how much we have and how much it’s worth saving.”

“It’s a weightless environment,” Matthews said. “It’s totally foreign in that way, and so it’s easy to enter into a totally different world… .You really don’t have to travel far to find things that are really beautiful.”
For more information, visit nealmatthews.com or searocketbistro.com. Sea Rocket Bistro will host an artist’s reception on July 14, from 6 to 9 p.m. and Karin Grow’s wood-paneled sea creature art to Matthews’ and surfer artist Harry Holiday’s exhibits.