The Story Behind the Photographs

RAJAN

This is Rajan. He is a 66yr old Asian elephant and he is the last of his kind. He was brought to the Andaman Islands in India for logging in the 1950’s. He along with a small group of 10 elephants were brutally forced to learn how to swim in the ocean so that they could bring the logged trees to nearby boats and then eventually swim on to the next island. When logging became banned in 2002 Rajan was out of a job. He has been living out his days on one of the Andaman Islands where I photographed him and his Majout (caretaker) named Nazroo who have been together for 30yrs. They have an incredible bond and it was an honor to share some time with them. Rajan was the last of this group to survive until his death in 2016. We will likely never see an ocean swimming elephant again. He was truly the last of his kind.