JADE | HOKSBERGEN

French - Taiwanese — and having lived on three different continents — Jade Hoksbergen, comes from a highly international background. At just 28 years of age, she has displayed a precocious talent across multiple fields: co-authoring two books; winning multiple awards for her underwater photography; and displaying a unique creative vision through her paintings.

With a dive-addicted father, Jade’s first experience on scuba came at just 9 years old and, growing up in the Philippines, she was afforded plenty of opportunities to explore the underwater world. When working as a Divemaster in Saint Lucia, she first picked up an underwater camera, and a love for creative expression via photography quickly bloomed. With a distinctive style, Jade’s imagery is influenced by her paintings and she finds inspiration in the colourful pockets of life the ocean has to offer.

Her underwater photography is award-winning and regularly published in dive publications around the globe, including DIVER and EZ DIVE magazines. Equally at ease behind and in front of a camera, she is a sought after model, with numerous cover shots to her name. Jade was a speaker at ADEX Singapore and Beijing in 2019.

In 2019, she co-authored Black is the New Blue Vol. II, showcasing blackwater diving. Her latest book, the Guide to Cebu, was co-written with husband and frequent collaborator, Henley, and is awaiting international release.

Although her expertise crosses many disciplines, at heart Jade is an artist, and it is her creative vision which most clearly defines her. Painting prolifically since her teenage years, she has been working on an OCEAN series of artworks for the last decade which brings together joint influences of expressionism, street art, and underwater world.

Jade is based in Devon, U.K., where she shares her passion for the underwater world with her husband, Henley Spiers, as well as their two young daughters.

Jade | Underwater Photography:

I especially enjoy creating photos of the small inhabitants of our reefs, especially those that are often overlooked.

I would say that art has always been instrumental in my life. In fact, I have been painting long before I started clicking the camera underwater. But now, I find that my photography inspires my painting and my painting also influences the way that I observe and capture the underwater world. I think that my passion for underwater photography stems not only from a desire for expression, but also a desire for observation.

I hope that with my photography and art I can inspire others to see the beauty of the ocean which is unfortunately under incredible threat. I hope that it lends a voice to the small critters who are so helpless in the face of the collective ecological damage we are responsible for.