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At the age of seven, Nicolás Marín Benítez watched nature documentaries in the
living
room of his parents' house and imagined what the life would be like for those divers who descended to the depths of the ocean or for experts who got lost in the desert or jungle to show the details of an endangered species.
The year was 2005 and he could not have imagined then that, less than two decades later, he would be entrusted with missions around the world to document some of the most exotic animals and ecosystems on the planet, nor that this would earn him the distinction of being the best nature photographer in the world.
Since December, he has been part of Darwin 200, a project in which a large group of young people travels the same route of the British naturalist Charles Darwin aboard a century-old boat, with the aim of training them as conservation leaders.
Marín Benítez, 24 years old, grew up in San Miguel, a city located in the province of Buenos Aires far from the sea, the jungle or the desert islands that, over time, would become their natural habitat.
As a child and until he was 18, he always dreamed of devoting himself to professional tennis.
“I was doing well, I competed in tournaments in the country, I traveled through Latin America, I went to the United States.
But at 18, I started to ask myself questions, I knew that there was only one Nadal, one Federer, one Djokovic.
I was afraid of my future and I started taking courses in photography, film, and writing.
I didn't study a degree, but I enrolled in a creativity school,” he recalls in an interview with América Futura.
The photograph of a coral shining at night, winner of the 'Environmental Picture of the Year' award.nicolas marin
Travel the world on expeditions
A year later, he received a job offer to work as an underwater photographer in Cozumel, Mexico, focusing on marine life and coral reefs.
There he received his first instruction as a diver.
“I started taking photos underwater, but I wanted to mix it with science and then my interest in environmental activism was added,” he says.
Later, expeditions arose to photograph marine fauna in other cities, always with the aim of making known through his work how environmental problems affect society.
“My work has a more genuine look, connected with love and nature, trying not to be a mere spectator, but to provide a solution,” he says.
In November 2023, Marín Benítez was honored as Best Environmental Photographer of the year, in the “Recovering nature” category, awarded by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, which highlights the most inspiring environmental photographs in the world.
When he sent a photo of a glow-in-the-dark coral, he explained to the jury that he used special diving lights “that don't bother the animals.”
He later recounted that, in the absolute darkness of the seabed, he saw the coral glow “as if it were a Christmas tree.”
Although emotion overwhelmed him, the environmentalist did not travel to London to receive the award: a challenging mission awaited him.
In Darwin's footsteps
At the end of 2023, Marín Benítez planned to return to Argentina to visit his family after two years living in Bajo California, Mexico.
He was in Aruba, in his role as climate ambassador to the United Nations, working on a documentary when he was invited to join Darwin 200, an initiative that brings together 200 environmentalists between 18 and 25 years old from all over the world who will travel for two years the same route that the British naturalist took.
At the beginning of the 1830s, on a mission that spanned five years traveling through America and Oceania, Darwin made all kinds of scientific observations that led him, first, to write his
Journal of Research
and, decades later, to expound his theory of the evolution of species and natural selection in the famous book
The Origin of Species,
published in 1859.
To mimic the voyage – which will run until 2025 – the ship, a 107-year-old Dutch schooner called Oosterschelde, will stop at all the major ports where Darwin made landfall.
Additionally, she anticipates 50 one-week stays during the itinerary.
There are young experts in giant turtles, others who specialized in marine plastics, reptiles, coastal habitats or reefs, among others.
In total, there are eight research projects: four that are carried out from the boat while sailing and another four that are carried out on land, among which the evolution of the planet's temperature, the advance of microplastics, health of coral reefs and research into new solutions to address pollution.
Nicolás Marín aboard the Oosterschelde.nicolas marin
The Argentine photographer joined the expedition in Fernando de Noronha, Brazil.
The goal was to be on board for just a week.
He first had to photograph sharks, an area in which he already had experience: in 2021 he documented whale sharks in Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
“I had never seen an animal that big, they measured 12 meters, it was like a five-story building,” he said.
Then he traveled to photograph sea turtles, within the framework of a species conservation project, returned to Argentina, stayed a few days on dry land and rejoined the Darwin 200 mission in Puerto Madryn, Río Negro province, with the goal of traveling to the Falkland Islands and other archipelagos in the South Atlantic to photograph and document penguins and albatrosses.
“The objective is to recreate Darwin's route for two years and train 200 young people.
In the Malvinas I dedicated myself to photographing the population of king, rockhopper and Magellanic penguins,” details the photographer and environmentalist.
“I learn a lot, it motivates me that every day I don't know what I'm going to find, what's going to come, but I'm sure it's going to be something incredible,” he adds.
From travel logs to social networks
That section of the trip, however, was the most complex: he had to face storms on the high seas, windows of wind and violent waves seven meters high, with gusts that shook the sailboat.
Marín Benítez says that the fear and adrenaline of the first days in the Patagonian ocean dissipated as the days went by.
An orca whale, photographed by Marín.nicolas marin
In the style of high sea logs, on his social networks the young explorer reflected his journey with videos and images of his day to day life.
In addition to documenting species, his role in Darwin 200 is to communicate the importance of fauna to the ecosystem, explain why species should be preserved, and detail the difficulties they face globally.
For example, the “ghost” fishing nets and other plastic waste found on the shores of the Malvinas coast were an aspect that caught his attention when walking through the Malvinas.
Marín Benítez received Christmas 2023 on the high seas and the new year in the Malvinas, where he also visited historical sites for Argentine memory, crossed by the 1982 war, such as the Darwin cemetery, where the remains of the fallen are found. in combat, and the trenches, where some elements of the young people who fought are still preserved.
“Being in the Malvinas was magical, it has a double weight, it is a special place for nature, but there is also the weight of history, of the boys who went to war, which is very hard,” he explains.
However, he believes that, in a context of climate change, the Malvinas are a place of hope.
“There is the largest albatross reserve and it is an oasis for whales,” he adds.
“My favorite mission is always the one that is yet to come, because there is a surprise factor,” he summarizes with a smile that makes his face grow.
“Now I want to live in Argentina again to bring to my country everything I learned. I see myself in the future with the same adrenaline as always, surrounded by nature, and perhaps being the protagonist of a better world,” she says.
And he leaves to look for a new adventure.