Dhritiman Mukherjee: The Philosophy of Photography EP#11

Heart of Conservation

For a person who would normally rather communicate through his photographs, in his first podcast-recording, Dhritiman Mukherjee, one of India’s most sought after wildlife photographers, opens up and speaks at length about his own perspectives and the process of his photography. Always lobbying for wildlife, he helps us understand several issues based on his experiences and personal knowledge of over 20 years. Talking of tourism, he explains how it helps wildlife rather than harms. He tells us about some of his conservation efforts including the Narcondam hornbill, which is exclusive to the Narcondam island and other projects documenting the Bengal florican, the Himalayan snow-leopard, brown bears, western tragopan, etc. and why he is never 100% satisfied with his efforts. He speaks about his travels on the iconic 2018 Abhor expedition (last conducted 160 years ago) with five WII (Wildlife Institute of India) scientists into parts unknown in Arunachal Pradesh, where they discovered recorded and discovered several species. Briefly, we discuss equipment; he tells us why he isn’t fussy about equipment and what ‘ethics and responsibility’ means for him. He tells us why he has a problem with words like “favourite-species”, ‘proud”, “good” and “bad”, “success and failure” Dhritiman also share a word that he thinks is important to conservation. Listen now. Let me know what you think. Write to me at [e-mail] You can read the Show notes soon on my blog. Check out other episode show notes there in the meanwhile.