Philippines - Heart of the Ocean’ wins the Palme d'Or International Prize for Best Book of the Year :

Michael AW’s ‘Philippines - Heart of the Ocean’ wins the Palme d'Or International Prize for Best Book of the Year at the World Underwater Pictures Festival (Festival Mondial de l'Image Sous Marine). The artistic book of the sea category yielded entries from a host of international authors and photographers including books published by media powerhouses from UK, Germany, USA and France, but it was “Heart of the Ocean” that received the Palme d'Or (Gold) award at the gala award ceremony of the world’s most prestigious underwater imagery festival of the ocean on the evening of 31 Oct at Palias du Pharo, Marseilles.

‘Heart of the Ocean’ took seven expeditions to complete; to date this is Singapore born Michael AW’s most inspiring book - his 26th sole authored book of the sea. Enchanted by the richness of the Coral Triangle and the splendour of the Philippines’ underwater heritage, Michael has captured in this book the very essence and opulence of the global centre of marine diversity in the most fascinating and finest detail ever published in one volume. This is the first win for a book featuring the Coral Triangle. Celebrating the arts of nature and the wonders of biological science, this production reveals the usual suspects of coral reefs, the pelagic zone, inshore and fringing reefs, with the oceanic atolls and several unusual open water and deep sea creatures.

‘Heart of the Ocean’ reveals the secrets and mysteries within the three deep basins under the sea near the equator, surrounded by the islands that make up Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. The shallow waters surrounding the Banda, Celebes, and Sulu Seas contain more different species of marine animal life than any other place on earth. The Celebes and Sulu Seas have some of the deepest waters, up to 5km deep. These deep seas, isolated from the world’s oceans, have never been exposed to, or mixed with the cold Antarctic bottom water which chills the deep water in all the oceans of the planet. Moreover, being near the equator, the Celebes and Sulu Seas even at great depths, have the warmest water left on the planet. A Miocene like relic, they could be thought of as incubators or perhaps the ancient heart of the ocean. During the Inner Space Speciation Project, with the legendary explorer Emory Kristoff, Michael AW was able to capture images of deep and open sea animals that live beyond the 60m depth. Many of these images expose new exotic animals that no one has ever seen before.

Philippines - ‘Heart of the Ocean’ is more than just a coffee table book that showcases the creative talents of Michael, a dedicated marine conservationist, photographer and writer. His photographic experience, knowledge of the ocean and enthusiasm is reflected in the beauty of the ‘Heart of the Ocean.’ A Fellow of the Explorer Club, New York and also a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP), he brings together elegantly, a repertoire of images that vigorously expose the extraterrestrial-like beauty of underwater life in an extraordinary perspective. Many of these pictures have been selected for archival fine art collections and limited edition reproduction. A trailer of this production won the SILVER DIVER AWARD at the same festival last year - 2008 World Underwater Pictures Festival in France.

Illustrated with exceptional images and detailed descriptions, the book guides you through the highlights of the Philippines’ exquisite underwater richness. The images give us an insight into the Inner Space that very few of us will ever be fortunate enough to experience. As a passionate conservationist Michael was instrumental in Her Excellency President Gloria Arroyo declaring June as the ‘Celebrate the Sea’ month and every second Sunday in June as ‘Celebrate the Sea’ day and is so penned in the book’s ‘Foreword. ‘

‘Philippines – Heart of the Ocean’ is a superb production printed on 180gsm fine art paper using six-colour printing technology by ColourScan Singapore, renowned for its high quality and multi-ward winning standards. Though the book has made its debut at a few events in 2009, it will be launched at Ocean Geographic’s Gift from the Sea exhibition at L2 Space Gallery in Singapore on 20 November and available at all good bookshops from 21 November 2009.

Part of the proceeds from the limited edition is designated for OceanNEnvironment’s “SAVE OUR SEAS” fund to support research and conservation projects in the Asia Pacific. The limited edition production is endorsed by President Gloria Arroyo and supported by Secretary Durano and Under Secretary Cynthia Carrion from the Department of Tourism Philippines.