Born in Northamptonshire, England in 1968, he began diving at the age of twenty-one and established himself on the technical diving scene during its formative years. Utilizing mixed gas to explore deep wrecks around the British Isles since the beginning of the 1990s, his 1997 expedition to search for the lost King Edward VII-class battleship off North Scotland became the first of its kind to explore shipwrecks beyond 100 m depths in European waters. With little material available on the subject of deep 35 mm stills he took to photography specifically for the HMHS Britannic 1998 expedition. His photographs have been published in magazines and national newspapers. He is known mostly for his ambient-light monochrome images of shipwrecks, which use natural light and long time exposures using a tripod to capture images of shipwrecks that are impossible to light using man-made lighting effects. Bishop has worked with government departments in finding shipwrecks: for instance with the UKCustoms & ExciseReceiver of Wreck, Bishop worked with various diving teams to legally recover artefacts from deep shipwrecks that went on display in various maritime museums. He has published hundreds of periodicals and photographs on the subject of shipwrecks globally and lectured on the subject around the world. He has researched into London archives, which led him to the identification of many unknown shipwrecks around the British Isles. During the 1990s Bishop and his dive partner Chris Hutchison are said to have explored more than 400 virgin shipwrecks. Bishop is a professional HSE qualified diver and has worked on consultancy for several television documentaries and has been involved in the commissioning of documentaries shown on several major network channels. He has also worked as an underwater cameraman where his film footage has been cut into underwater television documentaries for National Geographic, History Channel, Discovery Channel, BBC and other major UK networks. To overcome depth and gas logistics of deep exploration he used closed circuit technology from the early days of technical diving to explore deep shipwrecks. His experience with various rebreather systems led him to become a development diver for certain rebreather companies. In 2008 he co founded EUROTEK with the late Carl Spencer and Rosemary E Lunn. This technical and advanced diving conference is held bi-annually in Birmingham, England and attracts technical divers, explorers, professors and scientists. During several expeditions to the RMS Lusitania he accumulated almost ten hours physically on the wreck, building the most extensive collection of images of the wreck to date. He also photographed the liner SS Transylvania, sunk in 135 m/445 ft in the north Atlantic. During 2001 along with fellow members of the deep wreck diving team 'Starfish Enterprise' he took the first images of the lost gold treasure shipwreck the SS Egypt, sunk in deep water off the edge of Biscay. Also in 2001 he made the discovery of Captain Kurt Carlsen's shipwreck Flying Enterprise, lost in 1952. He went on to be involved as a photographer in expeditions, such as HMHS Britannic in 1998, 2003, 2006 and 2009.
Publishing
Bishop has published articles, features and photographs in many magazines globally as well as books and major newspapers published in America and England. He has written over 200 full feature articles and his creative underwater imagery has been used in many advertising campaigns for the promotion of diving manufacturers' equipment and popular publications. He has contributed to all of the UK's diving magazines, although he specifically contributes to the UK's DIVER magazine and the US-based Wreck Diving magazine. Underwater images of shipwrecks and divers taken by Bishop have appeared on covers of various magazines.
