Sergio Riccardo

Sergio Riccardo was born in Naples on October 5, 1963. Growing up in close contact with the sea, at just under 13 he built a small arch with the metal cores of an umbrella and began fishing off the waters of Procida Island. At 16, he took a scuba diving course and, afer just two and a half years, became a PADI diving instructor, the youngest in Europe. He immediately began his professional career, initially working with the Sorrento Diving Center and, soon after, in 1984, moving to the Maldives for a long period. At the same time, he opened one of the first diving centers in Italy in Sorrento, alternating his working seasons between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.
In 1991, attentive to market demands, he founded Diving Tour, a small tour operator specializing in underwater destinations. This began his search for new underwater destinations in various seas around the world and in areas of greatest tourist interest.
In the following years, he dived from the Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean, passing through the Arctic, carefully observing and photographing places and animal species both above and below the sea's surface. In June 2016, his first photography book, "Ocean Life," was published, a 35-year journey above and below the world's seas. In February 2019, he participated, as an Underwater Photographer, in an expedition to Antarctica to film a documentary on the Leopard Seal.
In January 2020, he was designated by the Port Authority as the Official Underwater Photographer for the Guard Coast Calendar, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Guard Coast diving unit. In July 2020, his second photography book, "Sharks Secrets," was released, featuring images of sharks photographed in various seas around the world. He currently has 72 different species of sharks photographed. In 2022, he was chosen as Director of Photography for the documentary "The Secret of the Galleon," in collaboration with the Superintendency of Sassari. In 2023 and 2024, he participated in expeditions to Antarctica and Greenland. Last February, a second documentary on which he worked as Director of Photography was presented at the EUDI SHOW:“The Last Frontier”. A new expedition to Alaska to document the Salmon Shark is planned for June 2026. His photographic archive contains over 130,000 images, most of which are underwater photos taken in over 8,000 dives in various larches and habitats: rivers, lakes, temperate, tropical, and cold waters. The result of this experience is "Photography Expeditions", a tour operator specializing in underwater and nature photography trips around the world, from the Mediterranean to Papua New Guinea, from Arctic to Antarctica, with a selection of holiday destinations and cruise ships. Today Sergio runs "Photography Expeditions" with the enthusiasm and passion of his first day, always seeking new destinations and destinations to explore and share, without ever neglecctng his home sea, the first great love of his life.