how Fabi rediscovered life

Fabi Fregonesi was never the same after a doctor told her she could die at any moment. She was in a management position at Google, a company where she worked for almost 20 years, when she developed a severe case of diverticulitis with intestinal perforation. The situation made her rethink her life, her routine and the message she wanted to leave to the world. In search of “the life I wanted to live”, in a radical and courageous change, she abandoned the corporate world and found her mission in underwater photography: “I don’t regret a second”.

Fabi, now 41, is originally from Rio de Janeiro and lives in São Paulo. The connection with the sea has existed since his birth, as he told Earth. However, diving is not something she imagined she would do with her life. Far from it: as a teenager, a traumatic situation made her afraid of fish.

Everything started to change when, around the age of 25, she planned a trip to Fernando de Noronha and decided to take a diving course with a friend. “I didn’t even think about it, I just did it,” he recalls. At that moment, when she realized she was at sea, she had a panic attack and was immediately rescued. It changed everything. More peaceful, she was able to face her fear, complete the dive and understand the power of being there, in the depths.

This happened in 2009, when she was already working at Google. Then, still initially as a hobby, he unpretentiously began taking photos during dives. She wanted to be able to show people everything she saw. Even without many resources, her machine accompanied her on her travels and she began to appreciate it.

Meanwhile, professionally, Fabi grew up selling Google’s advertising solutions. She says she’s been involved in some amazing projects and spent time with people she’ll be with for the rest of her life. But the routine was extremely intense and work stress was one of the factors leading to diverticulitis with intestinal perforation.

It was a serious medical emergency, which occurred during a work trip to South Africa, in April 2023. She was hospitalized in the country for 11 days and it was there that she learned that she was at risk of death due to the severity of her case. “I never thought that maybe I didn’t have the 50 years ahead of me that I thought I had,” and that’s when she started thinking more concretely about where she wanted to continue putting down roots.

From this first episode, she continued to have attacks of the disease spaced a month and a half apart. There have been four throughout the year. Until in 2024, she was informed that her position in one of Google’s largest sales teams would no longer exist due to a restructuring – the option, to continue with the company, would be to move to another vacancy in a position she already held years ago. Which, for her, no longer made sense.

That was one of the signs. The other won the podium at Underwater Photographer of the Yearconsidered the “Oscar of underwater photography” in the same year. All this encouraged her. She even considered other career formats, like working in consulting or on corporate boards, but realized that wouldn’t be the answer to how she wanted to live the rest of her life.

Her last day at Google was July 2024, when she left the office and began making photography her job – and also her life mission. This mission, as he says, is about sharks.

“These are animals that are still very little known, so one of the things I want to do is demystify, through photos, the way these animals are seen. That’s something my mission is. If I manage to make someone a little less afraid of sharks, for cultural, media reasons, in short, I already understand that my work is done there in one way or another,” he believes.

Fabi is very concerned with the issue of awareness and seeks to convey information in a simple and clear way to the public with his work. On social networks for example, via her profile @fabi_dive, she shares various content explaining environmental issues, the context behind her photos and much more. His work on Instagram is followed by more than 17,000 followers.

“We don’t live by dreams”

Fabi had a formal contract and a comfortable financial life during the years he spent in the corporate world. Life was fast-paced and he reached positions he never even imagined. While she was still hospitalized, she started putting everything to the end of her pencil and wanted to understand the possibilities. “We don’t live by dreams,” he admits.

Since she began thinking about her future, she set up a savings account, mapped out possible sources of income in underwater photography, and when the time came to “go for it,” she felt safe taking the risk, knowing that if it didn’t work out, she could support herself for a while with the booking she made — something she recognizes as a privilege.

“When I made this decision, it was a little scary. We’re afraid of the unknown. But, ultimately, today it’s liberating. Knowing that I’m doing something that makes my body throb,” says the photographer.

Although, for the moment, she does not earn the same salary as in the corporate sector, she considers her life to be more balanced. Fabi analyzes the issue based on what he calls the “seven healths”: physical, mental/emotional, social, financial, professional, family and spiritual. If financial life is less stable, others are more balanced. And right now, that’s what matters to her.