In a 2023 article about the last living Northern White Rhinoceros for The New York Times Magazine, Times journalist Sam Anderson wrote about the limits of our capacity for love — to give and receive love.
"We are built to love, and we can summon that love to do nearly impossible things — and yet that love has an outer range of maybe 30 yards. It’s like a wonderful lamp. It fills the inside of our houses. It washes over our families and our pets. It extends, as we walk, to the town around us," he wrote. "But it cannot leap, with any of the necessary intensity, across city limits or state lines or oceans. It cannot leap, except abstractly, with great effort, to distant people in need, or to strange, threatened animals. (...) We have to proceed, somehow, as if our love extended to creatures and places it could extend to but does not. We need to fit humanity with some kind of prosthetic love extensions."
Since the 19th century, wildlife photographers have tested and defied the limits of our love by going where most of us can't. They venture out to remote frontiers of the world to document the natural beauty of the world — of its wild flora and fauna — and raise awareness about the precarity of their existence, and ours. Here are 5 emerging wildlife photographers who excel at what they do and tap into something profound within us — our capacity to extend our love to animals that cannot love us back.
Dhir Jakharia is a Kenyan-Indian wildlife photographer passionate about capturing the world's beauty. During a family vacation to Vietnam in 2019, he took his camera along and discovered a love for capturing landscapes and unique moments. Encouraged by his cousin, he began sharing his photos on Instagram. Today, he has over 387,000 followers on Instagram and shares stunning wildlife photographs of lions, elephants, giraffes, and other African wild animals. Follow him here.
Aman Sharma is a 22-year-old wildlife photographer, climate activist, and wildlife conservationist currently studying Sustainability and Conservation at the University of Pennsylvania. Sharma is a UNDP Mission 1.5 Ambassador and has previously worked with WWF-India, UNICEF, and UNDP on their climate initiatives. Follow him here.
Shreyovi Mehta is a 10-year-old wildlife photographer from India. Shreyovi comes from a family of wildlife professionals and has travelled extensively with her parents to various national parks in the country since the age of two. She first picked up her camera during her field experiences with her father. Shreyovi gained widespread recognition for her striking image of peafowls which earned her the runner-up position in the Natural History Museum's prestigious 'Wildlife Photographer of the Year' competition in 2024. Follow her here.
An artist, photographer, and passionate student of the natural world, Ishan's fascination with wildlife began in childhood. His book, 'The Light of Wilder Things', chronicles his journey through India’s natural wonders as a teenager. He has authored wildlife field guides and contributed to leading publications like Sanctuary Asia, Nature in Focus, and Wildlife SOS. Follow him here.
Vijayaditya Singh Rathore is a wildlife photographer from Jodhpur specialising in bird photography. He is the author of 'Birds of Chandbagh: A Guide to Birding at The Doon School', a comprehensive bird-watching guide covering over 200 species of birds of The Doon School with photographs, QR codes to hear bird calls and see global distribution and a scale for size. Follow him here.
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