Opinion Leader

Rafa Herrero Massieu

Nationality: Spain
Website: http://www.aquawork.com/

Opinion Leader

Rafa Herrero Massieu

Nationality: Spain
Website: http://www.aquawork.com/

BIOGRAPHY

The sea has always been on his mind since his beginnings...

Rafa is a professional scuba diver, instructor, CCR Expedition Mixer Gas Diver (Rebreather), producer and professional underwater cameraman.

He has been the manager of Aquawork since 1994 as a film producer specialised in underwater documentaries.

He has made more than 20 marine world documentaries, including the documentary series ‘Canarias and the Sea’ financed by the Canary Islands government.

Rafa has contributed to international productions by Canal Plus France, National Geographic Wild, Canal Xplora Canada and the BBC.

From 2009 to 2013 he produced the documentary ‘No man's Sea’, working closely with the Canary Foundation Mafre Guanarteme to raise awareness of marine life with documentaries.

Standing out among his many works is the 50' minute documentary entitled ‘Cheetahs from the Deep’, filmed from 2011 to 2012.

Rafa films with a Red Epic / Dragon digital camera with 6K resolution and ‘Rouge’ underwater housing from Amphibico Professional, and stands out as an internationally renowned underwater cameraman.

He was appointed a member of the prestigious ‘Ocean Artists Society’ in March 2013.

From 2014 to 2016, Rafa was producer and director of the 48' documentary ‘Life in the blue’. Edited in Ultra High Definition (UHD), it depics a different vision of the sea through short stories of unique beings which have successfully adapted to a hostile world where life and death intermingle every day.

Rafa also worked as underwater cameraman for the full-length wildlife film ‘The Canary Islands - World of the Fire Mountains’ for Science Vision and ORF.

He was producer of the short film ‘La Palma, Blue Island’ which won first prize of at the FINISTERRA ARRÁBIDA FILM ART & TOURISM FESTIVAL in 2016.

In 2016-2017, he was an underwater cameraman for the BBC’s ‘Blue Planet II’ series, working as the main cameraman on episode 4, ‘The Big Blue’. He won a BAFTA Award in 2018 for his work on this, specifically for capturing a sequence of a female pilot whale with her dead calf.

From 2018 to 2020, Rafa was involved in producing materials to monitor, control and mitigate the proliferation of marine organisms related to human interferences and climate change in the Canarian Government Macaronesic area.

In 2018, he worked as an underwater cameraman in the Moviestar + series ‘EL HIERRO’.

In November 2019, he was awarded the special ‘Francisco Pizarro’ award from the International Cycle of Underwater Cinema from San Sebastián as an homage to a career of international prestige within the underwater image sector.

He produced five audiovisuals about Monk Seals in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean for the CBD-Hábitat Foundation.

Rafa worked on production of the documentary ‘Gardens from the Shadow Deep’ about the 50 – 100 metre deep Mesofotic Coral in the Canary Islands, for the Canary Islands government.

In June 2020, he stared working with a new digital cinema camera, the Red Gemini, especially designed for working in low light and with professional Nauticam Red Weapon LT underwater housing.

He was an underwater cameraman on the BBC series ‘Planet Earth III’, for the episode ‘Oceans’ from 2020 to 2023.

Most recently, he has been involved in the production of the 55' documentary ‘Canary Islands, Basalt Reefs’, which follows the origins and formation of the reef through the lava from volcanoes, filled with amazing sea life and beautiful underwater landscapes.