In Conversation with BIPP Member Arun Mohanraj

Arun Mohanraj is a former doctor who found solace and passion in photography after his cancer diagnosis. For the past seven years, he has used his camera to cope with the difficulties of his journey, gradually transforming it into a lifelong pursuit. In just three and a half years as a professional, Arun has achieved remarkable success, most recently winning three golden cameras in the Federation of European Photographers Awards 2023.

Arun’s expertise lies in wildlife, sports, and macro photography, and he regularly embarks on solitary expeditions to remote corners of the planet. In this interview, Arun gives insights into his journey, images and outlook on life.

Are you self-taught as a photographer?

Absolutely. It started with photography magazines and then a lot of YouTube. When I first joined photography clubs, it was one of the best decisions I made because you have a lot of in-house competitions, critique nights and talks from photographers.

Although the competitions initially motivated me, it’s not as important to me now, as it’s more about creating meaningful pictures. At one point, I was taking photos thinking it was going to do well in a certain competition, and then I realised this wasn’t the right approach. I should be enjoying the practice and trying to earn money from it. I started to do more projects instead of just capturing nice images. So now I’m working on more documentary and photojournalism projects than just wildlife per se.

What inspires you as a photographer?

It’s hard to explain. Even when I was an artist of pastel painting, it was challenging to say this is a painting I would like to do similarly. For photography, if I’m looking at pictures or projects, I sometimes see something and think I want to create something similar. As things have progressed, it’s quite hard to say who influences me, but more individual projects and pictures inspire me. One wildlife photographer, Austin Thomas, ‘s been quite influential; he came and gave a talk at our club.

What is the project you’re working on at the moment?

I’m currently travelling in South Africa and Zambia, so it’s two different projects. The first one is about poaching in terms of wildlife conservation, so I meet

When and why did you first get into photography?

I started as a landscape photographer. I wasn’t very good at that, but it’s more because I love travelling, and I’ve been fortunate to travel around the world; as it stands, it’s 44 countries so far. Then I got into sports photography, and I was doing a bit of wildlife as well and then got stuck entirely with wildlife in terms of interest, and it also gelled with my travel. I then started to travel based on my photography to game reserves in different countries, and my lifestyle pattern changed to suit wildlife photography and macro – that’s another one of my interests.

I used to do oil and pastel painting about 10 to 15 years ago; the photography was incidental. I was diagnosed with Lymphoma, which is cancer of my lymph node, it was a low time for me in terms of my mental well-being, and instead of painting, I started doing photography. One, it’s a little bit quicker, and two, I could de-stress and distract my mind quite easily, and then I joined Chorley photography club and it became a bit more of a passion. I started doing wildlife and sports photography – I think there are transferable skills between the two genres. I would say I’ve worked for about seven years now as a photographer; as a professional, it has been around three and a half years.

Did you have a career in pastel painting?

It was more of an artistic outlet. I’ve exhibited work in local exhibitions with other artists. It’s more abstract work and portraits.

What did you do as a career before photography?

I work as a doctor as well, but since my illness, I only do part-time, but I’m a lot better now because of it. It gives me more time to do the photography, so I still do work at the hospital, but much less now.

ARUN MOHANRAJ

the different Anti Protection Units (APUs) concerning the game reserves, we shadow them basically to see what work is involved, and also work on two dehorning projects with them and I meet the locals as well, the people that work around the game reserve and local leaders, such as the Zulu leaders.

Poaching is very easy to define – you penalise the people who do the poaching, and it’s done and dusted – my view and many people involved see it’s more complicated than that. Like dehorning, I’ve spoken with many people about this, and I’m yet to find anyone with a solution to the problem.

I’m also doing a project around the very first and only all-female APU. They’re called the Black Mambas; I interviewed them last year and followed them for four days as part of a documentary project.

Over the past 4-5 days, I’ve been working on a project around rehabilitation centres; it’s one of a few centres I’ve visited over the past three years. I document how they operate, and some are not just rehabilitation centres; one called Moholoholo in South Africa is open to visitors to come in and view them as animals that can’t be released into the wild, stay in the rehab centre. The rehab centre I’ve been to for the last three days has a completely different approach; they don’t allow private viewing because they believe you’re making it like a zoo, and some animals are so incapacitated they can’t be released back into the wild are euthanised.

How have you gained access to these places?

I’ve always travelled solo as you make more friends and I prefer working in my own bubble instead of a group. When I went to Ecuador and Brazil, instead of going to a tour guide, I’d messaged a local zoologist or animal tracker; you find a link through them. Once I get to know someone, I keep a strong link with them, and they’ll usually have other connections to support you.

It’s a case of just asking a lot of the time; the worst thing is they say no. The first two times, the APUs said I couldn’t go with them, as sensitive information could be exposed, so I had to gain their trust.

You mentioned interviewing people. Do you accompany your photographs much with the written word?

For projects, I write explanatory backgrounds to go along with them. I like to enter competitions when I can include the story behind the image – it’s more like photojournalism. I’m writing a book that will take another three years; it’s a six-year project about the pros and cons of wildlife conservation.

I’m also writing a book on disabled sports, which links to one of the photos that won an award for the FEP, shot at the para-athletic championships in Germany, I have a relative who is disabled and used to compete in swimming, and my work in this area started as commissioned work to cover one of the swimming events. I’ve got in the habit of interviewing people at the events to get more background, and it’s inspiring to see the challenges they face and what drives them.

What camera do you use?

I have a Canon DX Mark II and a Canon DX Mark III. And I have a range of lenses.

Do you have a favourite lens?

No hesitation, my Canon 300mm f2.8, it’s an amazing lens.

What’s your post-production process and workflow like?

If it’s my sports photography, it depends on which agency wants my pictures, but usually, I edit in Lightroom and send them straight after. If it’s wildlife, I save them onto the cloud first, but post-production wise, there is hardly anything aside from cropping and removing dust.

ARUN MOHANRAJ

Do you have a memorable photograph from your career?

Absolutely. My best picture is the one that’s hardly gone public or won any competitions or awards. It’s a picture of muskoxen in Norway – it’s because of the conditions and challenges we had – it took us three days.

We camped in Norway, in one of the most remote regions, and stayed in a tent where the temperature reached -23 at night – I really thought I wasn’t going to make it at one point – I was freezing, all the skin on my nose came off, and I was bleeding from my eyes as well.

Sleeping was difficult, the air was thin, and my breathing was laboured; it was very challenging. The next day we managed to photograph some muskoxen from a distance. It’s the process that went into it and the fact we got a rare sighting of them in the winter months. It’s the only picture I’ve framed at home.

My most sold picture was a cheater with cubs, shot in South Africa in the early morning; that’s also a favourite picture of mine.

Is there anything on your photography bucket list you still want to capture?

One of the things I still want to photograph is the penguins in Antarctica. I want to stay in Antarctica for the winter if I ever get the opportunity and photograph them for that duration, but if you go in the winter months, you have to stay for 6 six months because they have no flights coming back.

ARUN MOHANRAJ

Why does that appeal to you? What makes you want to do something that extreme?

In all honesty, the biggest thing that appeals to me more than photography is the solitude. I’m an introvert to some extent, and when you go out on your own, you absorb the nature around you. I feel more peaceful on my own with nature and part of nature. It’s an experience, and I want to take snapshots in my mind of being there, so the concept of solitude appeals to me in that way.

What advice would you give to a photographer starting out?

I haven’t come to that stage in photography to start giving advice, but one thing that applies to any profession is to keep your eyes open and your options open – you never know what will work for you.