Fine Art Photography as a Tool for Education & Conservation

Ian Lockwood uses traditional photographic approaches, digital media and geospatial tools to draw attention to dramatic ecological changes in the Western Ghats.

- Ian Lockwood

For the last several decades, I have been living in, leaving and then returning to the mountains in southern India. The geography, ecology, landscapes and cultures of South Asia crept into my consciousness at an early age, and have continued to provide the focus of my work as a photographer, writer and educator. Family ties in the region and influences from my father were significant in shaping my love for South Asia. Growing up as an American, awash in a multitude of nationalities, ethnicities and faiths, I came to identify with universal perspectives unencumbered by constricted ideologies. Interactions with natural landscapes and indigenous populations in the Western Ghats and Bengal incubated a deeper connection to the planet. My relationship with the mountains, forests and cultures, in experience, word and image has come to be a key focal point in my human journey.

An effort to balance eclectic goals of documentation, edification, conservation and aesthetics is reflected in my work. I make a living as an international educator, and teach ecological and geographic concepts that are also woven into my writing and photography. Traveling, exploring and getting to know the subcontinent intimately has been an important passion project for me. It is a vast, diverse and complex geography. Changes in ecology, land use and human pressures have been a recurring and often distressing reality in South Asia, during my short lifetime.