Hello, I’m Arjun Swaminathan. I’m a storyteller.
For over 15 years, I have used photography, film, podcasting, and community radio to showcase and amplify the stories of the people in India’s hinterlands—of their lives, their communities, and their connection to the earth; local governance; biodiversity conservation; and the interdependence of life on Earth.
My work has taken me closer to the faces behind local governance, efforts in the conservation of our rich biodiversity, the stories that have been passed down orally for centuries, and the people who depend on the earth as much as it depends on them. Everywhere I go, I am humbled by their love for nature and their trust in me to take their voices to the world.
My work is on nativepicture.com, and my heart rests somewhere between a slab of cold stone and a hot cup of tea, listening to a fascinating tale of how one spell of hard rain changed the course of three generations. Or how a root, a leaf, and a mushroom once saved the life of a man.
That, to me, is home.
