Valerie Taylor (diver)

File: Valerie Taylor, 2014

Valerie Taylor (born November 9, 1935 in Paddington (New South Wales) , Australia ) is an Australian diver, photographer and filmmaker. Together with her husband Ron Taylor she made nature films about sharks and other marine animals.

life and work

Taylor spent the first few years of her life in Sydney and moved with her family to New Zealand in 1939 , where her father set up a battery factory. During the poliomyelitis epidemic in 1948, she fell ill with polio and was isolated from family and friends. She slowly recovered with the assistance of Sister Elizabeth Kenny's treatment and rehabilitation method . Since school attendance was also limited during this time, she left school at the age of 15 to work for the NZ Film Unit and to draw for an animation studio. She moved to Sydney with her family to settle in the beachfront suburb of Port Hacking, where she began diving in 1956 and spear fishing in 1960. She became an Australian diving and spearfishing champion. She met her future husband Ron Taylor (1934–2012) at St. George's Spearfishing Club and married him in 1963.

Underwater photographer and filmmaker

In 1967, a Belgian scientific expedition asked the Taylors to join in their efforts to record life on the Great Barrier Reef . For several months, Taylor dived the entire length of the Great Barrier Reef from Lady Elliot Island to the Torres Strait Islands . Over the decades, she campaigned to prevent oil production in Ningaloo Marine Park , the revocation of mining rights on the Coral Sea Islands, and the protection of many places on the Great Barrier Reef before it was declared a World Heritage Site.

In 1969 the Taylors started their own production company and she became internationally famous for Peter Gimbel's film Blue Water White Death , in which she swam among a school of Oceanic White Tip sharks. The documentary caught the attention of American film director Steven Spielberg , for whom they shot the real Great White Shark sequences for the film " Jaws ". Together with her husband, she made some of the most famous nature films about sharks and other marine animals. She and her husband were the first to film great white sharks without the protection of a cage.

In 1973 Taylor's photo was on the cover of National Geographic magazine and motivated the Swedish researcher Lars-Eric Lindblad to have the Taylors conduct expeditions with his red and white ship Lindblad Explorer and give lectures to travelers for a decade .

Both she and her husband have won numerous awards in underwater photography and videography . With thousands of hours of film and television and their various works published, the Taylors advocate conservation in Australia and around the world.

Awards

1981: NOGI award for Arts, Academy of Underwater Arts & Sciences
1986: Order of the Golden Ark, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands
1993: SSI Platinum Pro 5000 Diver
1997: American Nature Photographer of the year award
2000: Membership of the Women Divers Hall of Fame
2001: Centenary Medal and the Australian Senior Achiever of the year
2010: Member of the Order of Australia (AM)

Awards together with Ron Taylor

1992: Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year
1997: Jury award for the film Shark Pod at the Antibes Underwater Festival, France
1998: Golden Palm Award for the book Blue Wilderness at the 25th World Festival of Underwater Pictures in Antibes, France
2000: International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame
2002: Wildlife Preservation Society of Australia's Serventy Conservation Medal
2008: Australian Geographic Lifetime of Conservation Award
2011: Australian Cinematographers Society Hall of Fame
Life membership of the St George Spearfishing & Freediving Club Inc.
2012: Renaming of the Neptune Islands Group Marine Park around the Neptune Islands in South Australia to Neptune Islands Group (Ron and Valerie Taylor) Marine Park

Books

The Undersea Artistry, 2017, ISBN 978-0692990445 .
An Adventurous Life, 2019, ISBN 978-0733641725 .
The Undersea Artistry of Valerie Taylor: A Coloring Book Featuring Original Illustrations by Valerie Taylor (English), 2017, ISBN 978-1977571144 .
Melody the Mermaid: Adventures in the Kingdoms of the Sea (English), 2017, ISBN 978-1976359897 .

Documentaries

1962: Playing with Sharks for Movietone News
1963: Shark Hunters
1964: Slaughter at Saumarez
1965: Skindiving Paradise
1965: Revenge of a Shark Victim
1965: Surf Scene
1966: Will the Barrier Reef Cure Claude Clough?
1967: Belgian Scientific Expedition, for the University of Liège
1967: The Underwater World of Ron Taylor
1967: The Cave Divers, for WD & HO Wills (Aust)
1975: Sharks, for Time-Life Television
1978: The Great Barrier Reef, for Time-Life Television
1981: The Wreck of the Yongala
1982: The Great Barrier Reef (IMAX)
1982: Operation Shark Bite
1991: Give Sharks a Chance, with Richard Dennison for the National Geographic Society and for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
1993: Shark Shocker, with Richard Dennison for Channel 4 UK
1993: Shadow over the Reef
1995: Mystique of the Pearl, for Film Australia
1996: Shark Pod
1999: Shadow of the Shark, for Australian Geographic

Movies

1968: Age of Consent
1969: The Intruders
1971: Blue Water, White Death
1975: Jaws
1976: Orca, (live shark sequences)
1977: The Last Wave (underwater sequences)
1978: Jaws 2
1981: Gallipoli, (underwater sequences)
1982: A Dangerous Summer, (underwater sequences)
1982: Year of living Dangerously
1980: The Blue Lagoon, (underwater sequences)
1983: The Silent One
1984: Sky Pirates, (underwater sequences)
1986: Frog Dreaming
1987: The Rescue, for Walt Disney
1990: Return to the Blue Lagoon, (underwater sequences)
1991: Honeymoon in Vegas, (underwater sequences)
1995: Police Story 4: First Strike, (underwater sequences)
1995: The Island of Dr Moreau, (living shark sequences)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Taylor, Valerie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Australian diver, photographer and filmmaker
DATE OF BIRTH	November 9, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH	Paddington, New South Wales , Australia