An Interview with Sandesh Kadur
> Q&A with Sandesh
1. When did you know you wanted to focus your photography on Conservation issues?
I read a quote in a documentary on television when I was in my early teens. It said that, “In the end, we will conserve only what we love, We love only what we understand, We understand only what we are taught”. I had just taken up photography with my father’s age old Nikkormat camera and looking into the viewfinder was all it took to have me hooked to the natural world. In the initial years photography was more about simply capturing the beauty of nature. Later when I started working with the Gorgas Science Foundation I understood their motto of conservation through education and worked at creating images that went beyond simply being beautiful to having a strong message of conservation built in.
2. Who are the photographers whom you admire, or who inspired you to become a professional photographer?
Michael Nichols, Brian Skerry, Joel Sartore, David Doubilet, are a few names that come to the top of my head. I looked forward to their images in National Geographic magazine!!
3. Most people don’t know what the lifestyle of a photographer is, can you give us some insight into your life in the field?
I suppose this is one of the most asked questions to a wildlife photographer. There have no doubt, been very close heart-stopping encounters with large animals like elephant, buffalo, rhino and tigers. Some perhaps life threatening… but the one that ranks the top in the most dangerous encounters had to do with a little insect that we all are familiar with – the mosquito. It was not the most fun experience going in and out of consciousness, being miles away from any medical help and worse, not knowing that I was suffering from cerebral malaria. In hindsight I would rank coming out of that experience alive as one of the most dangerous situations I’ve been in and now treat mosquitoes with a lot of respect. All other encounters’ fall very short of this mind numbing experience.
4. You’re in Kaziranga at the moment, what are you working on?
I’m in Kaziranga at the moment shooting the first part of a three-part series titled ‘Wild India’ to be broadcast on National Geographic. Around the same area I’m also working on completing a documentary about clouded leopards that have recently been rehabilitated in the wild. My main project right now is a coffee-table book highlighting the spectacular biodiversity of the Eastern Himalayan landscape to be out in the fall.