In October of 2005 Claire Nouvian, journalist, producer, and film director, took the trip of a lifetime traveling aboard a research submersible to the depths of the ocean.

“That was the most amazing, the most incredible moment of my life; as if I had been offered a trip to the moon … I thought of nothing else for months before it happened. Afterwards, for weeks I couldn’t talk about it without crying. I’m still not entirely over it … It was so beautiful and so intense, it changed me forever.”

Nouvian, whose interest in the deep sea was originally inspired by a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) directed by Pop!Tech 2005 speaker Marcia McNutt, has created a stunning new photo-book, The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Deep , recently published by Chicago University Press, with the hope of bringing the vastness of the deep oceans and their creatures to a wider audience.

Think you’ve seen images like these before? Think again.

You can purchase the hardcover, 256 page book at Amazon for $26.