A series of eerie photos of an underwater whale graveyard being illuminated by a singular flashlight in the background have gone viral.
The haunting images of the graveyard were captured by Swedish photographer, Alex Dawson. The unique and never-seen-before snaps then went on to win first prize in Scuba Diving 's 2022 Underwater Photo Contest Wide Angle category.
On Wednesday, Mr Dawson took to Twitter to share a few of the snaps he captured. Sharing his joy at winning the first prize, he wrote: I'm very honoured that Scuba Diving Magazine choose my image as a winner of 2022 in the wide-angle category.
"Last but not least another image also got awarded with an honourable mention. And a big thank you for the first prize onboard the luxurious Red Sea Aggressor III in 2023."
The post has received over 43,000 likes and more than 6,000 retweets since being shared. And numerous social media users have commented, congratulating the photographer for his achievements.
One user wrote: "Wow these are amazing."
And another commented" "Award and more than deserved mention. Congratulations!!"
Speaking about how what he wants to achieve when he takes pictures, Dawson told Newsweek : "When I capture images I want to create 'I wish I was there' feelings. That's my mantra."
Revealing the brutality of just how difficult it was to take the pictures, Dawson said that he endured cold depths of nearly -2C.
And under three feet of packed ice at the bay of Tasiilaq in Greenland, Dawson and his companion Anna Von Boetticher swam along 20 whale carcasses to capture the winning shot.
The site the pair dived around is known locally as flenseplassen - which translates roughly to "skinning grounds". It is where local Inuit hunters collect their carcasses, and strip them down to the bare bones. And when the tide is high, they pull what remains back into the water.
While a lot of the time Dawson says, "usually to see whale bones like this you would need a submarine," in Greenland, they lie just 15 to 20 feet below the surface of the water, and remain virtually untouched.
Opening up about the challenges of getting the footage, Dawson said that in order to capture the image he swam under the ice for over an hour.
In order to get below the ice, the only entry point was through a small human-sized hole in the ice.
Dawson eerily said: "Going down into the darkness and you're all alone.
"You think who's down here?
"Then you come down and you see these whale bones. They're so huge."
During this time, he scarily switched between breathing regulators as his breath ended up freezing in their valves. However, the photographer shockingly revealed that after completing the -2C dive, the "Cold doesn't give me any fear".
This was Dawson's second trip to Greenland, following a previous expedition in 2019. Speaking about why he returns to the country, he said: "What's so interesting with Greenland and the pack ice is that every time you dive it will always look different because the ice moves. It's basically a new dive every time."
However, the main difference on this trip, he said, was the climate. The award winning photographer added: "For the first five days of the trip the weather was so warm the ice and snow started melting."
The contest's other winners include Boz Johnson, Salvatore Ianniello, Miguel Ramirez and Yury Ivanov. And the grand prize was awarded to Boz Johnson after he captured two flying fish in the Philippines.
You can see all the images here.
