Arati is based out of: Bangalore, India

About

“I don’t try to fool myself that the stories of individuals are themselves arguments. I just believe that better arguments, maybe even better policies, get formulated when we know more about ordinary lives.”

— Katherine Boo

Working across South Asia, independent photographer, writer, and National Geographic Explorer Arati Kumar-Rao documents environmental degradation that has reached cataclysmic levels. She chronicles how drastically depleting groundwater, habitat destruction, and land acquisition for industry devastates biodiversity and shrinks common lands, displacing millions and pushing species towards extinction.

Arati was named in BBC’s 100 Influential and Inspiring women from around the world in 2023.

Her first book, Marginlands: Indian Landscapes On The Brink, published by PanMacmillan (Picador) India in June 2023, was shortlisted at both the Atta Galata Banfalore Lit Fest & TataLitLive! Awards 2023 for First-book, Non-fiction. It is available on Amazon and in bookstores everywhere in India.

Arati’s work has also appeared in the National Geographic Magazine, Emergence Magazine, BBC Outside Source, and in leading Indian newspapers, among other outlets.

When not on assignment, she splits her time between a biodiversity hotspot — the Western Ghats — and Bangalore in India, where she plays a happy mother to three rescued cats.

She is currently on a National Geographic grant to document forced human migration in India.

TALKS, COLLABS, AWARDS, & GRANTS:

BBC 100 Inluential and Inspiring Women from around the world, 2023
Marginlands: Shortlisted for best first book, Non-fiction at TataLitLive! Awards 2023
Marginlands: Short-listed at AttaGalatta Bangalore LitFest Awards 2023 for Non-fiction Book
June 2023: Book: Marginlands: Indian Landscapes On The Brink, Publisher: PanMacmillan (Picador) India
TED Talks India Nayi Baat with Shah Rukh Khan & Star Plus
Speaker: Deserts Are Not Wastelands, National Geographic Explorers’ Fest, Wash. D.C., June 2019
National Geographic Photo Camp, Co-Teacher, Bhutan March 2019
Speaker: A Slow Violence, National Geographic Storytellers’ Summit, Wash. D.C., January 2019
Grant: National Geographic Explorer Grant, awarded 2019, for work through 2024
National Geographic Slow Journalism workshops: Co-taught with two-time Pulitzer Prize winning writer, Paul Salopek, ex-National Geographic Staff Writer Don Belt, and senior editor Prem Panicker: May 2018, September 2018, November 2018
National Geographic Photo Camp, Kolkata, November 2018
Out of Eden Walk, National Geographic: Walking partner of National Geographic fellow Paul Salopek across 600 km of India: March - May 2018.
Read Article
Exhibited in Serendipity Arts Festival, December 2017, Goa. Serendipity Arts Festival is a multidisciplinary event on the banks of the river Mandovi in Panaji, Goa. A cultural experience in itself, the festival brings together visual, performing and culinary arts. Curated by a panel of artists and institutional figures, this second edition will feature over 70 art projects including 40 projects that are commissioned specifically for the festival.
Report about my exhibit here.
Award: The first Anupam Mishra Memorial Medal for excellence in river journalism by World Wildlife Fund India, INTACH, India Rivers Week, November 2017 in New Delhi, India
Report on receiving the award/ my work here, here and here
Speaker: Let’s Talk About Water, TEDx Whitefield
Contributor to @EverydayExtinction on Instagram
The 6th extinction of global biodiversity is underway. Photographers around the world document its causes, effects and solutions.
Contributor to #reframeclimate: #Dysturb & Magnum Foundation Exhibit at Look3 Festival From its origins as a street intervention in Paris during the #COP21 Climate Change Summit to the city of Charlottesville, #reframeclimate challenges the stereotypical notions of what climate change looks like in order to expand and deepen perceptions about its many implications.Co-mentored Saevus Wildlife India LLP's Youth4Clicks 2017 workshop, March 2017
Contributor to @EverydayClimateChange on Instagram, since February 2015. This is a collaboration of photographers posting information from around the world on how anthropogenic activities are changing landscapes and lives around the world and what, if anything, is being done to mitigate it.
Conducted a MasterClass in Visual Storytelling & Social Advocacy at Objectifs, Singapore, March 2017
Speaker, In Conversation @Objectifs, Singapore. Stories that Matter, March 2017
Exhibited as part of @EverydayClimateChange @Objectifs, Singapore, March 2017
Honorable Mention in Imagely Fund Competition 2016
Represented India in Apple's new #ShotOniPhone7 "One Night on Earth" campaign
Solo Exhibition: "Landscapes of Loss" at National Center for Biological Sciences, "Future of Nature" series, November 2016
Keynote Speaker at Moving Waters Film Festival, Bangalore, India 2016
Mentored by Ed Kashi and James Estrin as part of the Anderson Ranch Arts Center's Visual Storytelling Mentoring program
Grant: Earth Journalism Network Biodiversity Grant for work on the Gangetic dolphin, March 2016
Named by Shutterstock in "100 Photographers From Around the World That You Should Follow Right Now"
Named by The Guardian in "The environment photographers you should be following on Instagram"
Named in Mashables "10 female photojournalists with their lenses on social justice"
Named in Time Magazine's "8 Eco-Conscious Instagram Accounts to Follow on Earth Day"
"Endangered Estuaries" Solo Photography Exhibition at Te Manawa, New Zealand
Keynote speaker at New Zealand India Research Institute's Sustainable Environments in 21st Century India, Massey University, NZ
Speaker at Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, 2016
Media delegate in the United Nations Women's representation at COP21; Report, December 2015
Award: Outstanding Photojournalism 2015; Society For Environmental Journalists (SEJ) Award, Honorable Mention, for Oil-spill in the Sundarbans
Award: Exhibited at the Royal Geographical Society, London as part of the Environmental Photographer of the Year (EPOTY 2015) for Oil-spill In the Sundarbans
Grant: The Asia Foundation & The Third Pole Fellowship in February 2015 to report along the Ganges in West Bengal.