Ben Hicks

Ben grew up in Venice, Florida, and moved to Boca Raton to study graphic design and photography at Florida Atlantic University. He then spent about a decade as a travelling surf photographer.

When a friend at a beach-monitoring nonprofit invited him to document sea turtle nest checks, something shifted — he “realized I could use the images as a voice.” He photographs sea turtles free-diving over South Florida's shallow reefs, never disturbing them, and locals call him “the turtle whisperer.”

His 2012 National Geographic Photo of the Day of a loggerhead went viral and changed the direction of his career. He won an Emmy for cinematography on PBS's “Troubled Waters: A Turtle's Tale” and was part of the Emmy-winning team on PBS's “We Are All Plastic People Now” (2023).