THE GUY TAKING AWARDWINNING NATURE PHOTOS: Jayaprakash Bojan, 42, photographer
Jayaprakash Bojan, a Singapore-based nature photographer, made headlines last year when he clinched the 2017 National
Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year award. The winning shot – which beat 11,000 others, shows a male orang utan peering out from behind a tree in a river in Tanjung Puting national park in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.
The photographer credits the win to research and planning, as well as input from locals who knew the area best. “I knew that proboscis monkeys were good swimmers, and I asked if there were any in the area,” recalls Jayaprakash. Instead, someone asked if he had seen orang utans in the river. It was surprising, for the primates were known to be afraid of water.
Intrigued, Jayaprakash rented a houseboat and staked out the spot with a friend and four rangers. They spent two days subsisting on coffee and instant noodles before they saw the elusive orang utan on the third morning. By then, he knew how he wanted to take the picture.
“I prefer to take pictures at eye level because it gives you a more intimate perspective,” he explains. It required going into water that rose to chest level – a risky move, because there could have been crocodiles in there – but he trusted the rangers to watch his back. “I spoke a lot about what I was planning to do, and the rangers actually helped me figure out which parts had a lower water level. We guessed that the orang utan would cross there, and were reasonably correct.”
In Jayaprakash’s winning shot, the orang utan is peering out from behind a tree to see if he is still there. The picture piqued the judges’ curiosity because it captured the animal’s vulnerable expression; the partially submerged orang utan was portrayed in a way not seen before.
On dry land, Jayaprakash teaches twice a week at M.A.D. School (a marketing, advertising and design school in Merchant Road), where he is an associate lecturer. And this year, he was one of the photographers engaged by National Geographic when it released a Singapore edition of the magazine.
Although he started to focus seriously on nature photography only four years ago (he previously worked in IT), it came quite naturally to Jayaprakash, who grew up in the hills of Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, India – where his parents still live.
“People talk about conservation, but it’s hard and very tricky. My logic is simple – you’ll take care of something when you love it. As a wildlife photographer, my end goal is just for more people to fall in love with wildlife and nature.”
He’s currently photographing primates for a book, which he reckons will take at least another year to complete.