Portrait of WildIndia

It was in 1984 that I visited the Kanha forest with a group of friends. It was love at first sight in my case, and what started off as a casual visit soon turned into a lifelong affair. As the years passed by, I explored many other jungles too. Every new place came with a new set of friends. Along with them, my acquaintance with the animals and their habitat began growing. During the initial phase, I did my photography with a video camera, but around 1996, I came across the book Sunlight and Shadows by M. Y. Ghorpade. Literally overnight I switched over to a still camera. Although I met him much later in my life, I made him my guru there and then. His photograph “Tusker in the Rain,” taken when photography was a difficult pursuit, still captivates me. Even in this age, I find it difficult enough doing wildlife photography using digital equipment. I can only imagine the hard work that he must have put in with his medium-format camera using black-and-white film.