About
Mt. Everest, Nepal/Chinese border
Kurt Mehta is a wildlife photographer based out of northern Vermont in the United States. He has a background in law, education and is a stakeholder in an educational travel company. He has visited over thirty countries and speaks four languages. Through his photography, his goal is to share his love for adventure and animals.
Ama Dablam, Nepal
All about perspective
My photographs attempt to show critically endangered species co-existing with indigenous human communities in far corners of the world. Unfortunately, much of the world has exterminated its large wildlife when it has been unsuccessful at mass breeding these animals for food or industry. In rare instances however, people in select regions of the globe have managed to maintain symbiotic relationships with their large wildlife. Despite the fierce competition with these sentient beings for scarce resources, the unique relationships illustrated here between human and animal have endured the test of time. While in some cases this symbiosis has been accomplished through government force, in other cases, local communities have been incentivized on their own to protect wildlife because of lucrative wildlife tourism. Finally, there are also documented instances where the animal/human relationship has been deeply entrenched in local folklore, superstition and even religion, thus acting as a counterweight to the expansion of human settlements and commercial interests into these fragile habitats.
I shoot with Fuji mirrorless camera bodies and only use their weather-resistant XF lenses including the 27mm, 16-55mm, 70-300mm, 80mm, 100-400mm and 150-600mm. Some of the shots have also been captured with the aid of a Fuji 1.4x teleconverter. Special thanks to photographer extraordinaire Peter Curtis for his tireless work helping me manage all these photos.
