Tony Holm Donates a Lifetime Beneath the Surface | Ocean Archive
URL: https://oceanarchive.net/stories/holm-donation
More than five decades of underwater filmmaking, photography and engineering — from the Gullmar Fjord to the Red Sea — find a permanent home at Ocean Archive.
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More than five decades of underwater filmmaking, photography and engineering — from the Gullmar Fjord to the Red Sea — find a permanent home at Ocean Archive.
Ocean Archive Team
July 2026
6 min read
Tony Holm's fascination with the sea began long before he ever put on a diving mask.
"My very early encounters with Sweden's west coast sparked my interest when I was around ten years old in the mid-1950s. After the autumn storms, the shores were covered with piles of healthy seaweed and eelgrass. To me, they were signs of a thriving sea, despite the fact that untreated sewage from cities around the Baltic and Denmark was flowing directly into the water."
That childhood curiosity would grow into a lifelong passion. For more than five decades, Tony Holm has documented life beneath the surface as an underwater filmmaker, photographer, author, and engineer. Through thousands of dives, pioneering camera technology of his own design, and an exceptional ability to capture the beauty and complexity of Nordic marine environments, he has become one of Sweden's most respected underwater storytellers.
Ocean Archive is now honoured to receive a donation preserving parts of this remarkable life's work for future generations.
Tony Holm hands over film reels and archival material to Ocean Archive.
Photo: Robert Westerberg - Ocean Archive
Tony Holm began diving in 1966, driven by a fascination with the underwater world. Only a few years later, he became an instructor with the Swedish Diving Federation, embarking on a career that would span more than half a century. His work has taken him from the cold waters of the Gullmar Fjord and the Kattegat to Svalbard, the Red Sea, the Philippines, and the Maldives, documenting marine life across a wide range of environments.
Tony Holm at home with one of his self-built underwater camera housings — a hallmark of a career spent designing his own tools for filming beneath the surface.
Photo: Micke Tilja - Ocean Archive
As both an engineer and filmmaker, Tony has continuously pushed the technical boundaries of underwater imaging. Throughout his career he designed and built sophisticated underwater housings for both still and motion picture cameras, adapting to each new generation of technology while remaining focused on a single goal: revealing the hidden world beneath the surface and inspiring a deeper understanding of our oceans.
Inside one of Tony Holm's hand-built housings: mechanical linkages, a viewfinder mirror and hand-written operating notes — a working notebook engineered directly into the equipment.
Photo: Micke Tilja - Ocean Archive
"Revealing the hidden world beneath the surface and inspiring a deeper understanding of our oceans."
— Tony Holm
His extensive body of work includes numerous documentary films, educational productions, and nature films, many exploring marine ecosystems and environmental issues. Throughout much of this work he has collaborated closely with his partner, Barbro Johansson, who has directed and taken an active role in the production of many of the films alongside him. He is also the author of several highly regarded books on underwater photography and marine life, including Underwater Photography in Nordic Waters, Photography Underwater – Technique and Practice, and Life in the Gullmar Fjord. Among his most recent productions is the feature documentary Salmo – Living on Hope, portraying the challenges facing Atlantic salmon and sea trout in Swedish rivers.
A film reel from Tony Holm's production 'Insjön', dated 1986 — one of many items now entering the archive.
Photo: Micke Tilja - Ocean Archive
Ocean Archive archivist Jeanne-Alice cataloguing materials from the Tony Holm donation.
Photo: Micke Tilja - Ocean Archive
The collection entrusted to Ocean Archive represents far more than a personal archive. It is an invaluable record of Sweden's underwater natural heritage, documenting marine environments over decades of environmental change while reflecting the evolution of underwater filmmaking itself. These photographs, films, and supporting materials will provide an important resource for future researchers, filmmakers, historians, and anyone seeking to better understand our relationship with the sea.
We are deeply grateful that Tony Holm has chosen Ocean Archive as the steward of this unique collection. His generous donation ensures that an extraordinary visual legacy — capturing both the beauty of the underwater world and the history of underwater exploration — will remain preserved, accessible, and inspiring for generations to come.