Valentina Cucchiara

Valentina's passions are traveling and nature conservation. During and after her studies, for seven years she worked a project on the study and conservation of migratory birds of prey in Southern Italy, which helped define her interests.

While in school, she majored in Biology, with a thesis on ecology of amphibians and reptiles. She attended a course in Conservation of Endangered Species at the Gerald Durrel Foundation in Jersey, and soon after discovered scuba diving.

That proved to be a turning point in her life. She then learnt photography and underwater filming to combine all her passions and turn them into a lifestyle and career at the same time.

The underwater world is an endless realm of opportunities but also a continuous challenge. Valentina has trained extensively in filming and diving- she has taken courses in cave diving and technical mix gas diving, all the while learning how to film in such challenging environments.

Valentina has been working as a freelance underwater camerawoman since 1998, and is now based in Mexico after spending over a decade in Egypt.