FRAGILE BEAUTY

Photographs by Hussain Aga Khan

For Sylvia

On the occasion of the 2022 UN OCEAN CONFERENCE, Lisbon, Portugal, two venues present the photographic plea of Hussain Aga Khan in favor of the preservation of our oceans.

• THE ISMAILI CENTRE, LISBON
June 21 - July 27, 2022.

• ONE SUSTAINABLE OCEAN, an official side event
accredited by the United Nations Ocean Conference,
Pavilhão de Portugal, Lisbon
June 27 - July 1, 2022.

For this exhibition, The Ismaili Centre, Lisbon, has partnered with Focused on Nature (FON), the Swiss association created by Hussain Aga Khan to promote, through the power of photography, awareness of environmental causes and to finance some of the best wildlife charities in the world for particular species and ecosystems of interest.

HUSSAIN AGA KHAN

An avid tropical fish hobbyist since the age of five and a reptile and amphibian enthusiast for nearly as long, Hussain Aga Khan developed a keen interest in conservation at a young age and began scuba diving at 14. He started travelling to the tropics frequently after secondary school and began taking photographs of fauna and flora on a trip to the Brazilian Amazon in 1996.
Multiple photographic expeditions, often organized jointly with scientists or professional photographers, have led him to constitute extraordinary archives, covering various geographical areas and types of habitats as well as a large number of marine and terrestrial species.

His books and exhibitions, shown in many countries, aim to inspire admiration for wildlife and therefore the desire to protect it. His new book, The Living Sea, was released in May 2022.

FOCUSED ON NATURE

Whilst the goal of Hussain’s photography has always been to help people fall in love with nature, inspire people to change behaviours and encourage them to educate others, FON was born out of the idea that raising awareness and engaging the public with some environmental education might not suffice. Hence the creation of a fund to finance some of the best wildlife charities in the world for particular species and ecosystems of interest.

Handpicked and vetted through a process of consultation with FON’s expert, committed advisers and contacts – or by literature review – organizations working on the conservation of sharks, cetaceans, mobulid rays, African elephants, rhinoceroses, rainforests and apes receive yearly donations.

Grantees include the Shark Conservation Fund and Fins Attached, the Manta Trust, Whale and Dolphin Conservation and the Wild Dolphin Project, The Rainforest Trust and Re: wild, the Wildlife Conservation Society and Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, as well as Oceana and the Jane Goodall Institute.

Wrasses
ECUADOR, SEPTEMBER 2021

These fish were hyperactive! I don’t know whether the gathering was about mating or something else.
Unfortunately the strobes scared them away – they dispersed really quickly and swam down to hide in the reef. Wrasses go through several colour phases in their lifecycle (much like angelfish) – juvenile, intermediate (or “subadult”), and adult. Males look completely different than females, are usually much more colorful... and wrasses can also change sex!

Oceanic manta ray
ISLA DE LA PLATA, NEAR PUERTO LOPEZ ECUADOR, SEPTEMBER 2021

This INCREDIBLE manta ray was a player! It came to me, stayed and played with me for an entire dive! It swam below me while I was at the surface, gazing up at me – making direct eye contact – and mirroring my location and speed... And it turned towards me, showing off its beautiful belly, over and over again. The most intelligent fish in the sea (mantas have the largest brain among fish) was clearly playing with me, observing me and enjoying our time together!
Initially it turned towards me, showing its belly and angling its face towards mine, only every few minutes; but soon it was rotating over and over again – every few seconds. As it did so the manta was getting closer and closer to me and it became hard to fit the whole animal in the frame!

Oceanic manta ray
PUERTO LOPEZ, ECUADOR, SEPTEMBER 2021

This movement of the manta’s wing is not by accident, not haphazard.
This was directly related to the animal’s behaviour – rotating towards me, looking right at me, changing position repeatedly in order to show me its underside.
Manta rays are now killed in the thousands for their gill plates, used in traditional medicine.
Not that traditional after all, though: their gills have only been sought after for two or three decades.
Sometimes these magnificent and highly intelligent animals, creatures that have been known to show gratitude when liberated from netting, ropes and hooks, are killed just to use as bait.

“Wonderful position” Spinner dolphin
SATAYA, EGYPT, NOVEMBER 2021

The dolphins often look better from down below.
You’re not allowed to dive with whales and dolphins, only to snorkel and free dive with them. The main reason I feel they look better from below is because you see so many pictures of them from above or from the side.
The other reason is because I’m a terrible breath-holder and I myself hardly ever see them from below!
Dolphins themselves rarely hold their breaths for more than a few minutes at a time – 8 to 10 in the case of bottlenose. It’s the beaked whales that are champions at holding their breaths. A Cuvier’s beaked whale recently stayed under for over three and a half hours.

Spotted eagle ray
THE GALAPAGOS, FEBRUARY 2022

This beautiful animal was immobile, hovering in place, in the current. Fairly big but not huge, a wonderful find. Spotted eagle rays don’t usually let you get very close at all, but this one didn’t seem particularly bothered. We swam together for a good 5 minutes, maybe a little more...
It’s a rare, highly enjoyable treat – a privilege – to get some time with a wild animal, and this was no exception.
Unlike stingrays, which themselves never attack people and rarely sting to defend themselves, eagle rays do not have a stinger on the tail.

Spotted eagle ray
THE GALAPAGOS, FEBRUARY 2022

The magnificent ray that gave me the pleasure of its company for a long swim after my group spotted it quite early on. Here it is rising up above the reef; we spent most of our time together a little below it. It would have been nice to get more images of its back, the white spots forming a beautiful contrast on the background colour...
Although I have only seen at most two eagle rays at a time, they do occasionally form larger schools. Nothing like Mobula rays in Baja California, though. Mobulas, some species of which occur in Portugal, often occur in schools of thousands in Baja.

A Galapagos bullhead shark rests on a ledge at Punta Vicente Roca
THE GALAPAGOS, FEBRUARY 2022

I had never seen one of these before, and so this was a very exciting experience for me...
Only about nine species of bullhead or horn shark exist. The one we see most frequently in the media is the Port Jackson shark from Australia.
Other species include the Japanese and Oman bullhead sharks and the Mexican horn shark.
This guy was maybe 25 meters down and quite small. This species only reaches a meter in length.

Red-lipped batfish
ISABELA, THE GALAPAGOS, FEBRUARY 2022

You have never seen – and could not imagine – such a bizarre and, if I may say, ugly creature in your life! Looking part amphibian and part reptilian, actually standing on leglike fins, these mind-boggling fish have bright red lips.
They live fairly deep – thirty meters or so down – off Darwin but also Isabela, and they are very clumsy swimmers that look like they’re waddling in the water. Fairly shy, they can actually pick up speed when they want. This one swam away from me repeatedly during our photo session.
He didn’t like me very much...

A fairly large parrotfish, its powerful beak which can be used to break coral apparent, swims among snappers, a Mexican hogfish and a barber fish
DARWIN, THE GALAPAGOS, FEBRUARY 2022

Parrotfish are amazing animals in that they form a protective, gelatinous cocoon before going to sleep at night.
You can even see sand slide off the transparent matter if you let go of some above it.
Should the enclosure be broken, assuming it isn’t already being watchful enough, the fish is alerted to danger and can make an escape.

A flightless Galapagos cormorant hunts fish in the shallows of a small bay
THE GALAPAGOS, FEBRUARY 2022

It was an amazing experience, a rarity, to watch a cormorant, one that has tiny wings and looks a little odd outside the water, fish in front of us for a number of minutes. We never saw it catch a fish but it was certainly determined in its efforts...
Most of the images came out somewhat blurry (cormorants are fast indeed) and the exposure wasn’t perfect. This image is a little enhanced.