I grew up in India glued to Discovery and Nat Geo, reading Jim Corbett. Man-Eaters of Kumaon is the book that changed my life. At school I was the kid who only ever painted lions and tigers. Today I live in Minnesota, and I photograph wildlife here and in India, and wherever else I can get to.
I've been behind the camera for about ten years. The years of charcoal, watercolor and oils never really left me, and neither did music. I'm a tabla player, and I think rhythm finds its way into my pictures as much as light does. I see myself as a fine art photographer: for me a photograph is an interpretation, not a record.
I became a wildlife photographer because I see what these animals go through. My art is about their beauty, but I feel I owe them a voice too, which is why In Our Wake sits alongside the other series.
You'll notice the work isn't sorted by species or place. Each series follows one way of seeing, and most of their names come from the arts I love: Ink and Brushwork from drawing and painting, The Wide Canvas, the Interplay of two voices in music, Monologues from the theater. What the Light Keeps is closer to a line of poetry. Naming them this way was my small tribute to those arts. Some of these series are a gamble. Slowing the shutter for Brushwork, or waiting for an animal to line up with the sun or moon for Circles of Light, means giving up shots that would have been easy to get. When it works, it’s the picture I was there for.
As for how I work: I shoot RAW and edit in Lightroom. In the art series I expose for the light and shape the rest in the edit, color and tone included, because the look is part of the work. In Our Wake is kept natural. I never add or remove anything from a scene, and I never bait an animal or set up a shot.
My work has been published and awarded on 1x. If you’d like to talk about an exhibition, a publication or a collaboration, I’d love to hear from you.