A photographer swam with sharks for 10 years to capture these stunning photos

Michael Muller/Taschen

Sharks often get a bad rap simply because people are afraid of them.

But for photographer Michael Muller, sharks are fascinating, and they make for stunning  subjects in his photography series and book, SHARKS, published by Taschen.

Muller was not originally a nature photographer. He is actually well-known for his celebrity work, having shot the cover of Rihanna's Unapologetic album and the movie poster for Deadpool. He has also photographed Michael Phelps during the Olympics.

But over the last decade, he has developed a fascination with sharks after his wife had booked a cage-diving trip for his birthday. Of course, Muller told Business Insider, before he went, he was a little apprehensive — especially after seeing the movie "Jaws." But despite that fear, he felt compelled to go. 

"I went out to Guadalupe Island, about 200 nautical miles off Mexico's Baja Peninsula; it’s a volcanic island," he said. "I was the first one in the water at six in the morning ... I was down there for about five minutes, and out of the darkness comes this first great white. It just swims right by me and we lock eyes, and I was like 'I see you and I know you see me'. There was a connection."

From that point on, he said, he knew that he had to continue to dive and photograph these majestic creatures. Here are some of his breathtaking photos. 

It all started with an underwater camera and National Geographic.

Muller received his first camera from his father when he was living in Saudi Arabia in about fourth grade. It was a Minolta Weathermatics. 

With that camera, he took a photo of a photo of a shark in National Geographic, processed the film, and showed all of his school buddies, telling them that he had shot it in the Red Sea. Muller said they were all blown away, but eventually, he did confess to the truth. Still, he said, this is when he realized just how powerful photography can be.

It was then that he decided to become a professional photographer.

At the beginning of his shark career, Muller knew that he needed new technology to capture the true beauty of sharks.

While photographing Michael Phelps and other Olympic swimmers, Muller started looking for better underwater lighting.  After looking around online — and being unsatisfied with everything he found — he decided created  his own underwater lights to effectively bring his photography studio underwater.

After a few false starts, he ended up partnering with a team of people that included an engineer from the Jet Propulsion Labs at NASA. They worked together to create something that hadn't before existed.

They used these newly invented lights for the first time in the Galapagos, photographing hundreds of hammerheads. 

During one particular dive, the idea for the book, SHARKS, was cemented in Muller's mind.

It was while photographing those hammerheads that he got the idea for his book. Before that dive, he said, he was unaware of millions of sharks that were being killed each year. 

"I looked around and said 'I don’t know if my daughters are going to be able to see what I’m seeing now'. And then I said 'maybe I can change people’s perceptions'," Muller declared. 

He went back to Guadalupe about six months later with seven assistants, strobe lights, the first submersible self-propelled cage, and cinema cage with no grates to start shooting the photos that would ultimately make it into his book.