Adam Oswell

“You’ve got to know your rights”

It’s a humid April afternoon in the hill country of northern Thailand, and Adam Oswell can’t wait for the monsoon rains to arrive and cleanse the air. The tall middle-aged Australian has made Thailand his home for the past 20 years and feels at ease in the tropical heat, especially when it’s ‘beer o’clock’, which I sense will commence when this interview terminates. “I like the whole year except these past couple of months when they burn everything so the air quality is really bad,” he explains. Normally, Adam and his wife escape to Australia, but of course COVID-19 travel restrictions this year meant that wasn’t possible, “so instead we went to the south of Thailand, which was good. There were no tourists, it was cheap, and easy to find somewhere to stay on the beach.”

That sounds idyllic to me. “It was!” Adam responds. “I love Asia and I’ve pretty much been to every country in Asia and there’s nowhere that compares, that has the same quality of life as Thailand, especially the north. For one or two months of the year, it’s not great, but it’s a great base, it’s got good people, the food, and there’s lots happening here for my work.”

That work involves documenting the illegal wildlife trade and working with NGOS, conservation charities and other willing parties in the seemingly endless battle to bring the perpetrators to justice. It is sensitive and potentially dangerous work, but self-preservation, he says, remains the priority…

How long have you been coming to Thailand for?

I’ve been coming here off and on since I was 19 – first in the 1980s. I left for a while, went to Tokyo, and then went back to Australia, then came back here and spent about 10 years in Bangkok. I returned to Australia when my daughter was born to take her to school, then came back here around 2008.

Was photography something you always wanted to do?

I’ve always been into photography. I studied it at the Sydney School of Photography, which is part of the arts department at Sydney University. I did a few years there, finished, and then started travelling. The first 10 or 20 years I was making a living, travelling a lot and doing as much as I needed to just to get by, and I worked in Japan in those days when photojournalism was actually a career, a well-paying career anyway.

And then it changed…

Then, when I had a child, I had to knuckle down and I got more into the wildlife trade, consultancy work, monitoring for larger organizations.

I’ve always been interested in wildlife and nature. I had no interest in advertising or commercial photography

Growing up, did you have the same interest in the natural world as you did with photography?

Yes. I’ve always been interested in wildlife and nature. I had no interest in advertising or commercial photography. All my photography has been based on communication for conservation work.

Was there a major turning point that got you locked into the type of work that you’ve been doing for the past couple of decades? Yeah, there was. In the 1990s.

I’d been doing a lot of travelling and seeing what Asia and most of this region was like, and then suddenly this massive development that kicked in with tourism and seeing

how everything drastically changed with all the wild areas. During my travelling, I was seeing the wildlife trade first-hand, the volumes and scale, and it wasn’t an issue in terms of governments, but I decided then and there that I would work on this.

Was there anybody else covering the wildlife trade back then?

At that time nobody was. You had the WWF, but the wildlife trade wasn’t an issue that people were focusing on as they are now, so I decided that I would start working on this, and it’s turned out well for me, because I’ve become a specialist and there’s not that many people who have that scope of experience and networks in place. Unfortunately, it’s a booming industry, I wish it wasn’t, but it is.

Who do you mostly work for when covering these stories?

I do a lot of work for different organizations. HSI (Humane Society International) are doing a big wildlife trade campaign now that I’m working on in Australia for the pet trade and wildlife trade in Asia. I’ve done a lot of comms work for WWF, especially on the tiger trade in 2010, when they had the Year of the Tiger. That was a big campaign because they had the global tiger summit in Russia. The main people I still work for are Traffic (the international wildlife trade monitoring network), but I’ve got my own organization now, and I use that as a legal structure to work through.

Tell me more about that…

I set it up about 2009, and it’s a foundation that allows me to work independently, to have funds and support that channel through our organization to work in the region here. It’s worked out well because the sensitivity around some of the stuff I’m doing in Burma (Myanmar) over the past 10 years has been so high that they don’t like to work with large organizations. They don’t want to have connections to the central government, and when you see what’s happening now (the military coup in Myanmar), it’s with good reason. They like to work with small discreet organizations, groups and individuals, and I just hire people as we need to on a project basis.

What is the foundation called?

It’s called Wildlife 1 Conservancy. The website gives a rundown of what we do, but there’s not too much stuff on there because the work that we do is sensitive. We’ve had the success we’ve had because we’re discreet.

It is sensitive work, but it must be evident that you need to take photographs, so how do you overcome any obstacles? Everything is about building and cultivating relationships and working with the right people. That’s key, so if you go into those areas with the right people then you get the access that you need. It’s about experience as well, you learn when to push and when to pull back. I’m very good at assessing people now. With investigative work, it’s crucial you know the characters of people.

Have you learnt some lessons the hard way?

Well, I’m still here! I’ve learnt lessons, definitely. Self-preservation is always the priority (laughs). I’m no good to anyone dead. But yeah, you learn. You know when to push and pull back. I did some work with Traffic about 10 years ago, and we found a lot of tiger trade was operating through the Pakistani embassy in Bangkok and they were doing it through the Chatuchak markets, the weekend market in Bangkok.

Diplomatic bags?

Yeah. We set everything up for a bust to take these people down – I had meetings with the head of the police, and there was nobody else in the room, just me and him. Then a few hours later in the evening, when we were getting ready to go and bust these guys, I got a call from a friend of mine who was a journalist and he said, “Adam, are you coming along tonight to the bust?” And I said, “how did you know about that?!”

No way!

It doesn’t matter how discreet and how secretive you try to be, there’s a high-level of corruption. A lot of the people we were trying to bust were the same people that we were working with in the government! We didn’t achieve much, a lot of money was spent, a lot of time and effort, but you can’t achieve much in countries like this with big organizations, because if you push too hard and start taking people down you just get kicked out of the country or they close your office.

When operating discreetly, when do you feel that you can bring the camera out?

I shoot everything. From day one, you shoot as you go along, so I take the camera out for everything unless I’m told not to. My golden rule is, ‘always ask for forgiveness rather than permission,’ otherwise you get nowhere. But again, you have to know, some people don’t forgive! You have to read the situation. In a country like Australia, it’s easy. You push, people get pissed off. So what? Unless you’re breaking the law…

Unfortunately, the wildlife trade is a booming industry, I wish it wasn’t, but it is

It sounds like you might have a recent example to tell? When we were in Kangaroo Island (during the 2019-20 climate

fires), there was this big field hospital set up by the ADF (Australian Defence Force), and they were bringing in animals and euthanizing them. Most of the animals could have been saved and they were euthanizing hundreds. We saw this enormous pit at the back where they were throwing animals. I walked in and started shooting and they got annoyed, so I reminded them that, “I’m an Australian taxpayer and you’re a public servant and unless you want to call the police, I have every right to come and shoot here.” You’ve got to be forceful, and know your rights, know the law, otherwise you won’t get strong images.

Did the euthanizing continue?

It continued in that area, but one vet we visited, Howard Ralph, he wasn’t euthanizing animals. He was working for free and he told us that the government had no policy for supporting wildlife. He was working and funding this whole surgery in this amazing place he had in outback New South Wales (Southern Cross Wildlife Care), and he would treat every animal that came in. He told us that’s the policy in Australia, it’s just too expensive, it’s not a priority to save wildlife, to put a huge amount of resources into saving wildlife.

What was it like to operate in such extreme conditions?

In Australia, bush fires are a way of life, but everybody agreed this was something different. When I got there they blocked access to the actual fire grounds, blocking highways, and you couldn’t get in.

What gear do you use? Did you have to do anything differently?

In terms of doing things differently, not really, but getting into the fire grounds, you had to be careful and wear protective clothing and masks. There was a lot of dust and toxic chemicals that were produced. I take a few cameras. I always take a Nikon D850. I use the D850 because it’s

You’ve got to be forceful, and know your rights, know the law, otherwise you won’t get strong images

fast and has autofocus, and you have a great range of lenses.

Which lenses?

I use a range of zooms and a 300mm telephoto fixed lens, which I get most stuff with. Because it’s got such high resolution you can get what you need and crop in and it’s still usable.

Do you always shoot Raw files?

I always shoot things flat, in Raw, so I have a lot of latitude in post to do things with the image. But it depends on what’s happening, sometimes you’ve just got to be quick.

Have you tried any of the Z-series cameras yet?

I borrowed one for a while, but because I’m a big guy they were just too small for my hands! I like a bigger camera and the D850 is perfect for me. I’m used to it and I like an optical viewfinder as well. Having said that, I’ll probably go with the new Z 9.

Yes, you’re not the only pro looking forward to the Z 9…

What a great tool for shooting, but also for video as well. Video is such an essential element of shooting now. When you go to situations where you invest a lot of time and expense just getting there, getting access to the site, you’ve got to take advantage of that, so you’ve got to shoot video.

During this period of lockdowns, has there been a story that you’ve still been able to pursue?

I’ve been working for nearly 10 years on this story about wild elephant capture and the use of wild elephants in the tourist industry. Elephants have always been a species that fascinate me. Living in Thailand and seeing the trade here – and the cruelty that’s associated with it and the ignorance and the indifference of people that patronize this industry – is really unacceptable for me. COVID means the tourist industry has collapsed and there are all these elephants here, thousands of elephants and their owners, so it’s an ongoing issue. What’s interesting is that a lot of the owners are starting to realize that the business model was unsustainable and exploitative, so they’re going their own way, and I’m focusing on the new projects that a lot of these guys have.

So this could be the one story that has a positive ending?

It’s positive already. The owners are struggling because they don’t have an income but the elephants, in terms of their welfare, it’s better for them. They’ve taken them back up into the forest and they’re living in these community forests.

What is the single best lesson that you would pass on to aspiring conservation photographers? Never take anything for granted.

Has there been a situation where you took something for granted? Yes. I was photographing some sun bears in cages on a farm in Laos. I was so engrossed in photographing them that I got up close and felt this massive paw whisk past my face. Another couple of millimetres and it would have taken my face off! Don’t get engrossed in shots too much…

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Below: Mongolia’s Altai mountains are a stronghold of the rarely seen snow leopard where Adam has been working alongside field biologists monitoring and collaring the elusive big cats.

Previous page: The collapse of Thailand’s tourist industry during the pandemic meant thousands of elephant owners had to find new ways to look after their animals with no income. Many have come to realize that the current business model for elephant tourism is unsustainable and highly exploitative.

Above: Tourists watch and photograph an Asian elephant forced to swim underwater for performances at Khao Kiew Zoo, Thailand. Most are oblivious to the beatings the elephant would have endured while being trained to perform this unnatural behaviour.

Above: Customers inspect animal parts used in traditional medicine at a wildlife market on the Myanmarchina border. Above right: This endangered Asiatic lion was captured in India’s Gir Forest, the only place where they are still to be found in the wild. Transported to a wildlife market in Myanmar, it was later killed. Right: A wildlife trader displays the skins of Asian leopards, tigers and many other endangered species in the border town of Mong La, Myanmar. In recent decades, the border regions of northeastern Myanmar have emerged as the largest and most intractable hub of illegal wildlife trafficking in Asia.

Above: A sedated wallaby, one of the few survivors of Australia’s climate fires of 2019-20, is treated at Southern Cross Wildlife Care, a voluntary-run veterinary hospital in New South Wales.

Above: In the incinerated landscape, a koala lies dead, one of the three billion animals estimated to have been killed in the cataclysmic fires that devastated much of Australia’s forests in the summer of 2019-20.