Images(3)

Box jellyfish

Maker Valerie Taylor (born 1935)

Subject or historical figure Valerie Taylor (born 1935)

DateFebruary 1979

Object numberANMS1468[016]

NamePhotographic slide

MediumColour transparency film

DimensionsOverall (inc carrier): 50 × 50 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Valerie Taylor in memory of Ron Taylor

Terms

DescriptionThere are a variety of gelatinous animals (also called jellies) from different phyla that inhabit the open oceans. Cnidarians, such as jellyfish and box jellyfish, are some of the most well-known for the translucent bell-like bodies, and the stinging nematocysts in the tentacles of their adult medusae forms. Similarly, ctenophores, also known as comb jellies, swim around the ocean using their hair-like cilia and capture their prey with the sticky colloblasts in their tentacles. SignificanceValerie has a special connection with animals and this is best seen in her photography of marine species. As an accomplished photographer alongside her husband’s underwater filming, they have an amazing catalogue of films and images they created together. Valerie’s imagery has been published across books and magazines around the world. She has numerous prestigious honours for her contributions to conservation by using these pictures to help promote the importance and protection of the animals she has dived with and gotten to know firsthand. Valerie’s photographs also give you an intimate viewing into her career. Her images take you behind the scenes of filmmaking, epic seafaring journeys to remote spots and for many locations, capturing marine ecosystems often when they were much healthier than what can be seen today.