HUSH

This series gives a visual expression to an ideal in the context of a cultural paradox: our reverence for nature that we, nevertheless, exploit unceasingly.

I spend a lot of time in unspoilt places in Africa where animals have seemingly endless space to move with rhythm and grace. Here, they live in harmony, secure in their ancestral roots and habits. However, with the inexorable human expansion, the transformation of these pristine landscapes appears relentless. Yet, paradoxically, all cultures appear to revere such wildernesses. 

In the hope that it prompts us to start thinking about this cultural contradiction, I have attempted to create a visual form for our reverence. I imagine a landscape invisible to the human eye but not to the camera where time is forever suspended in a dreamlike way and where wild animals live in tranquillity, just being themselves. 

Prints of this series are made on Hahnemuhle German Etching textured 310 gsm photographic paper. The resulting print looks more like a poetic, moody drawing, less like a photograph.

BEING

I live in the wild for long stretches of time. Inevitably, I fall under the spell of wild animals. It dawns on me that these are intelligent, emotional, social and personable beings. I connect with their sentience.

To communicate this, I opted for a work of portraiture. Fortunately, for my purposes, wild animals care nothing about keeping up appearances. So, I waited and waited to capture a natural expression or a revealing gesture rendered in an instant. Something spontaneous. For this is where, I think, the truth of a mind lies.

FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK

This new series will eventually comprise of 20 photographs.

The animals in this artwork are often readily seen in daytime. However, with ongoing human persecution, will we in the future only see them lurking in the darkness, dimly seen, having a mere shadowy, enigmatic presence on this earth? Does this fate await some of us too? My aim is to get the viewer to think about the condition of the denizens of the natural world, and more generally, the restrictions on freedom and the limits on choice.


THE MARA

A few years ago, on the open plains of Maasai Mara, I was in the midst of elephants and within touching distance of a couple of them. I felt a primeval sense of being, a connection to a distant past. I wondered if I could translate that feeling into photographs.

I opted for an approach that is immediate, intimate, immersive, inclusive and involving but which also gives a feeling of space. I wanted to impart to the viewer what it feels like – mentally and physically – to be inside the vast and lively landscape of Maasai Mara, being among wild animals. In this way, I hope the viewer can open up to Mara and its animals – feel the earth, smell the wind, and touch the elephant’s wrinkled skin. Then, perhaps, the viewer might connect with The Mara and extend sympathy to this natural world.

STANCE

Strong in build, striking in his beauty, wise in his face, and magnetic in his presence.

There is mystery behind that masked, grey visage, an ancient life force, delicate and mighty, awe and enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires and the sea.

 

Books and Reviews

This is the visual story of life in Maasai Mara, Kenya, wild home of African big game and one of the world's most famous wildlife reserves. Anup Shah's distinctive style of photography propels the reader into the middle of this evocative land and its resident animals, immediately and intimately.

Project Statements

HUSH

This series gives a visual expression to an ideal in the context of a cultural paradox: our reverence for nature that we, nevertheless, exploit unceasingly.

I spend a lot of time in unspoilt places in Africa where animals have seemingly endless space to move with rhythm and grace. Here, they live in harmony, secure in their ancestral roots and habits. However, with the inexorable human expansion, the transformation of these pristine landscapes appears relentless. Yet, paradoxically, all cultures appear to revere such wildernesses. 

In the hope that it prompts us to start thinking about this cultural contradiction, I have attempted to create a visual form for our reverence. I imagine a landscape invisible to the human eye but not to the camera where time is forever suspended in a dreamlike way and where wild animals live in tranquillity, just being themselves. 

Prints of this series are made on Hahnemuhle German Etching textured 310 gsm photographic paper. The resulting print looks more like a poetic, moody drawing, less like a photograph.

BEING

I live in the wild for long stretches of time. Inevitably, I fall under the spell of wild animals. It dawns on me that these are intelligent, emotional, social and personable beings. I connect with their sentience.

To communicate this, I opted for a work of portraiture. Fortunately, for my purposes, wild animals care nothing about keeping up appearances. So, I waited and waited to capture a natural expression or a revealing gesture rendered in an instant. Something spontaneous. For this is where, I think, the truth of a mind lies.

FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK

This new series will eventually comprise of 20 photographs.

The animals in this artwork are often readily seen in daytime. However, with ongoing human persecution, will we in the future only see them lurking in the darkness, dimly seen, having a mere shadowy, enigmatic presence on this earth? Does this fate await some of us too? My aim is to get the viewer to think about the condition of the denizens of the natural world, and more generally, the restrictions on freedom and the limits on choice.


THE MARA

A few years ago, on the open plains of Maasai Mara, I was in the midst of elephants and within touching distance of a couple of them. I felt a primeval sense of being, a connection to a distant past. I wondered if I could translate that feeling into photographs.

I opted for an approach that is immediate, intimate, immersive, inclusive and involving but which also gives a feeling of space. I wanted to impart to the viewer what it feels like – mentally and physically – to be inside the vast and lively landscape of Maasai Mara, being among wild animals. In this way, I hope the viewer can open up to Mara and its animals – feel the earth, smell the wind, and touch the elephant’s wrinkled skin. Then, perhaps, the viewer might connect with The Mara and extend sympathy to this natural world.

STANCE

Strong in build, striking in his beauty, wise in his face, and magnetic in his presence.

There is mystery behind that masked, grey visage, an ancient life force, delicate and mighty, awe and enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires and the sea.