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Quick answer: Will and Wind towel designs are based on original underwater photography Australia taken at Ningaloo Reef, the Great Barrier Reef and Queensland humpback whale migration routes. Photographers include Will and Wind co-founder Chris Burnham and award-winning marine photographer Brooke Pyke. None of the images are stock photography. |
Most beach towel designs start with a design brief and a stock image library. Will and Wind starts with a dive tank, a housing and a camera in genuinely challenging conditions offshore from some of the most remarkable marine environments on the planet.
The underwater photography Australia behind the Will and Wind range is real. Here is where it comes from, who took it and why it matters for what ends up on the towel.
Where the Underwater Photography Comes From
Will and Wind was co-founded by Chris Burnham, a photographer who had been documenting Australian marine environments for years before the brand existed. The product range grew out of an existing archive of original underwater photography rather than the other way around. The images came first.
The primary locations for the underwater photography in the Will and Wind range are Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia and the Queensland coastline including the waters where humpback whales migrate each year. Both locations produce some of the most technically and artistically demanding underwater photography in the world. Whale sharks at Ningaloo move fast and the light underwater changes constantly. Humpbacks on the Queensland coast require extended patience and a significant degree of luck to encounter at the right angle in the right light.
See the photographers and the story behind each design at our Our Photographers page.
Brooke Pyke: Australian Underwater Photography at Its Best
One of the key photographers in the Will and Wind range is Brooke Pyke, an award-winning Australian marine and underwater photographer with a body of work that spans whale shark encounters at Ningaloo, humpback whale dives off Queensland and coral reef documentation across the Indo-Pacific.
The Bottlenose Dolphin Mother and Calf design, one of the most recognised in the range, came from a free dive off Ningaloo when a mother dolphin and her calf approached Brooke with what she describes as calm curiosity. The encounter lasted a few minutes. The photograph it produced became the basis for a collection. That story is told in full in the mother and calf blog.
Brooke's underwater photography Australia covers a range of subjects including whale sharks, which she has photographed at Ningaloo across multiple seasons. The Yin Yang Leopard Shark design in the Will and Wind range is one result of that body of work. Getting two leopard sharks in the frame simultaneously, let alone in a composition that holds up as both a photograph and a product design, takes time and repetition that most people underestimate.
How Underwater Photography Becomes a Towel Design
The process from image to product is closer to editorial photography than commercial design. The raw photograph is assessed for composition, colour balance, how it will work at scale and whether the image holds its impact when translated to fabric. Not every great photograph makes a great towel design. The framing that works in a gallery print does not always translate when the image needs to work across a 160cm x 80cm surface.
The production process after that point involves converting the image files to the specifications required for dye sublimation printing on 200 GSM rPET microfibre. The colour depth available in the Will and Wind manufacturing process is high enough to retain the tonal range of the original photography, which is why the towels look the way they do rather than like a simplified graphic version of the image.
Why Australian Marine Environments Specifically
Australia has some of the most significant marine environments on earth. The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system. Ningaloo is one of the few places globally where whale shark encounters are reliably possible. The humpback whale migration route along the east coast passes through Queensland waters that are accessible to experienced divers and freediving photographers. These are not interchangeable locations. The underwater photography Australia that comes from these places is specific to conditions and subjects that do not exist anywhere else in the same combination.
Will and Wind's conservation partnership with the Australian Marine Conservation Society reflects this directly. A portion of sales from select products goes to AMCS to support the protection of the marine environments the photography documents. See the full conservation picture in the marine conservation blog.
The Designs Currently in the Range
The Will and Wind travel towel range shows the full current collection of designs. The same photography appears across the beach mat, car seat towel and gym towel ranges. The design library grows as new photography is added from ongoing fieldwork. The iconic Australian beaches that appear in the collection and the story of how specific locations became specific designs is covered in the iconic Australian beaches blog.
FAQs
Who takes the underwater photography used in Will and Wind designs?
Will and Wind co-founder Chris Burnham and award-winning Australian marine photographer Brooke Pyke are the primary photographers behind the range. Full profiles and the stories behind specific designs are at the Our Photographers page.
Where is the underwater photography taken?
Primarily Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia and the Queensland coastline including the humpback whale migration corridor. The Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea also feature in the range.
Are the designs on Will and Wind towels original photographs?
Yes. Every design is based on original photography. None are stock images or AI-generated illustrations.
Can I buy a print of the Will and Wind photography?
The photography is currently available as a product rather than a standalone print. The travel towel collection shows all current designs. For enquiries about the photography, contact us at the contact page.
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