Curriculum Vitae
 

In 1989, Swiss-born Mirko Zanni enrolled in an open water diving course with a friend, hoping to explore even more of the colourful world. Though he was a photographer by nature, it was a while before he began taking pictures of the fabulous fish and landscapes he had seen.

Photography was always a passion of mine: the camera was an essential tool to bring with me on any occasion; to immortalise the places, actions, people and wonderfully colourful events. After a few years of diving he decided to merge his two passions photography and the underwater world into one.

Mirko learned the practical techniques from the field’s biggest practitioners, names like David Doubilet, Kurt Amsler and Franco Banfi; and began practising in the rivers near his home. Now he dives all over the world with his girlfriend and model, Tanja Porta.

Mirko’s photographic tastes are diverse his most favourite subjects are tiny fishes (for which he uses his macro lens) and spectacular wide-angle shots, taken with his prized 16mm fish-eye lens.

His work regularly appears in magazines Aquanaut and Fotospiegel (Switzerland), Diving a Fondo (Spain) and Neptun(Russia), and he has won numerous photographic awards, including at the Underwater Photography World Champion 2000 he won the third place in wideangle category as a single, which gave the chance to the Swiss Team to get the third place absolute, at the Celebrate the Sea Photo & Video Competition won the Special David Doubilet Award for Best Portfolio.