Capturing animals and birds in their natural setting is what every photographer dreams about, but there are a few photographers who are also conscious about the gruelling nature of the landscapes these animals live in.
Dr P.V. Subramaniam is one such photographer from the city who, apart from capturing a variety of animals on camera, has also learnt about the hardships they face during the scorching summers.
His work, along with the works of 75 other wildlife photographers, will be on display at the H2PHOTO exhibition, which will be held in the city.
Talking about the exhibition, Sarita Subramaniam, the organiser of the exhibition, says,“Our exhibition of wildlife photography, titled H2PHOTO, is a fundraiser for project Aquarius and the sale proceeds from the exhibition will be utilised for funding project Aquarius.” Explaining what project Aquarius is all about, Sarita says, “This is a project under our NGO called Earth Brigade Foundation and under this project, we donate and install solar pumps in forests, which provide drinking water exclusively to the wildlife there.” Sarita has spent the last 21 years travelling all across the country. Her extensive sojourns have proved to be eye-opening, for they have informed her about the challenges animals and birds face during the summer months. It is this realisation that has motivated her to start Project Aquarius.
But, how does one find out forest areas most in need of solar pumps? Sarita explains: “First, we request the forest departments to identify the areas most in need of water, and to dig bore wells in such places. Once they share the specifics of the bore well, our solar partner does the technical assessments and completes the installation using solar panels and submersible pumps.” As a result, water is made available to wildlife right inside the forests due to these pumps. Animals don’t have to travel long distances for their quest for water and their survival improves. This also prevents them from straying into human areas for water and thereby, prevents a human-animal conflict.
Elaborating on the kind of visuals one will be treated to at the exhibition, Sarita says, “There will be pictures of animals, birds, reptiles and insects. Although amateurs, the contributing photographers are passionate about helping wildlife. They have contributed their work to support our project. We reached out to these photographers via social media and personal contacts.”
This year’s exhibition is the result of last year’s success, where photographer PV Subramaniam’s wildlife images became a crowd favourite.
“We were encouraged by the trem-endous resp-onse to the images. So, we decided to have a fundraiser on a larger scale and involved many more photographers, who were enthusiastic and generous with sharing their images for the cause,” the organiser signs off.
