Regional Spotlight Artist Profile | Emma Brown

Published on 29 August 2026

The Regional Spotlight initiative is an opportunity for Wide-Bay Burnett artists at any stage in their career, working in any visual art medium, to receive mentorship and share their work at the gallery. Developed from an expressions of interest process, the 2025 exhibition brings a multifaceted survey of local artists sharing their personal connection to space, landscape, environment, home and time through mediums of painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and mixed media work.

Emma Brown has developed a portfolio of the tiny ecosystems that exist in the waters of the Fraser Coast, which invites viewers to slow down and notice a quieter, more intimate side of our local marine environment.

How did you get into underwater photography?
I decided about six years ago that diving wasn’t expensive enough as a hobby, so I remortgaged the house and added underwater photography into the mix. But in all seriousness, I’d been very casually interested in land-based photography for years and didn’t realise there was a place for someone like me in underwater photography.I always thought it was something reserved for National Geographic photographers and professional divers, rather than a casual diver in Australia.

That changed when I went on a group dive trip with a friend who had a camera. Seeing what was possible opened my eyes to the fact that underwater photography was actually a hobby I could get into. I just had to start somewhere. It’s a longer story, but I started out with a rented GoPro, having absolutely no idea how to turn it on. Six years later, I’m shooting both macro and wide-angle underwater photography with a Sony A1 II. There’s been a bit of a learning curve along the way!

What are your favourite subjects to work with and why?
I photograph both equine events and underwater subjects, so clearly I haven’t worked out how to choose a favourite subject!

For the Regional Spotlight, though, I wanted to show people that there is so much more to the underwater world around Hervey Bay than the bigger creatures we’re famous for. There is an entire macro world here that often gets overlooked.

Nudibranchs, tiny crabs, blennies and other small creatures can be incredibly strange, colourful and beautiful when you take the time to look closely. The Fraser Coast is a bit of a mecca for macro subjects if you slow down enough to notice them, and that’s what I wanted this portfolio to highlight.

Who/what inspires or influences you?
With AI now becoming such a huge part of the photography world, I find myself even more inspired by showing people just how incredible the natural world already is. Especially in the macro space, you can find creatures that look like they’ve been designed by an artist, but they are completely real.

The colours, patterns, shapes and behaviours are all there without needing artificial editing or imagination. For me, photography is about finding those moments and showing people something they might otherwise swim straight past. Nature really doesn’t need much help to be awe-inspiring.

What do you like most about living in the region?
I love that the Fraser Coast gives me access to such a huge variety of subjects, both above and below the water. We’re surrounded by an incredible marine environment, but I think we sometimes take for granted just how much is here.

There’s the obvious big stuff that brings people to the region, but then there’s this whole hidden world beneath the surface that you can spend years exploring and still keep finding something new. For me, that’s one of the best things about living here. I can get in the water with a camera, slow down, look closely and constantly discover something I haven’t seen before. And I don’t have to travel to some exotic destination to do it — it’s right here on our doorstep.

What advice would I give to budding underwater photographers?
First, get comfortable with diving. Before worrying about cameras, settings or getting that perfect photograph, you need to be comfortable and confident in the water. Good buoyancy, awareness of your surroundings and being able to control yourself underwater all become even more important when you add a camera into the mix. After that, just start.

You really don’t need the most expensive camera, the biggest housing or years of experience to get into underwater photography. I certainly didn’t have any of those things when I started. My first underwater camera was a rented GoPro and I didn’t even know how to turn it on! You learn as you go, and there’s a huge amount of information available now through other photographers, dive groups and online communities.

Start with what you have, learn how your equipment works and concentrate on enjoying being underwater rather than chasing the perfect image. And don’t overlook the small stuff. You don’t need to travel to an exotic destination to find something worth photographing. Some of my favourite images have come from creatures that are only a few centimetres long, right here on the Fraser Coast. Most importantly, don’t be intimidated by the incredible images you see online.

Everyone started somewhere. Get comfortable in the water, pick up a camera and start looking — you’ll be surprised at what you find.

Photo: Emma Brown, supplied by the artist.