Wildlife Photographer
Sanya Uppal
Photographing the quiet movements that shape the wild.
A photographic practice shaped by patience, close observation and repeated journeys through India's national parks and the savannahs of East Africa.
About Sanya
How do societies balance the need for infrastructure with the responsibility to protect the ecosystems through which it passes?
Sanya Uppal has been photographing India's national parks since she was fourteen.
Over the past decade, she has made more than twenty trips across parks in northern and central India, and the savannahs of East Africa. Most of the photographs came from the part of wildlife photography she enjoys most: patience and attention to the small movements.
In her work, Sanya researches energy and transport infrastructure and organises industry events. Over time, these interests have converged. Wildlife, forests and infrastructure, including roads, railways and transmission lines, often occupy the same landscape. She keeps returning to the same question: how do societies balance the need for infrastructure with the responsibility to protect the ecosystems through which it passes?
Sanya studied economics at Duke University. She reads whenever she can, runs a small book club, and has never met a puzzle she could leave unfinished.
The Practice of Looking
For Sanya, wildlife photography begins before the shutter is pressed. It is a practice of waiting, noticing and understanding how an animal moves through its environment. The photographs on this website are records of those brief encounters.
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