00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 Qatari wildlife photographer, Azam Al-Manai,
00:05 has won international acclaim for his ability
00:08 to capture the true essence of nature.
00:10 From Netflix to National Geographic,
00:14 his striking pictures have wowed audiences
00:17 all across the planet.
00:19 - I am Azam Al-Manai, artist,
00:22 adventurer, and a nature enthusiast.
00:24 - The self-taught aerial and underwater photographer
00:29 left a career in oil and gas to begin a one-man mission
00:33 to share the beauty and drama of nature through pictures.
00:37 (gentle music)
00:43 Azam, we're here on your boat,
00:55 preparing for the start of whale shark season.
00:58 You're about to get into the water.
01:00 How do you get comfortable being in there
01:03 with those giant creatures?
01:06 - Well, building the relation between me
01:08 and these giant creatures really comes on my top priority.
01:12 Well, the relationship is intimate.
01:14 It's more about creating the dialogue.
01:18 Yes, we don't speak the same language.
01:20 However, there's eye contact, there's a body language
01:23 that surrounds me and them all together
01:26 in order to blend and have this special moment.
01:30 This requires a lot of attempts.
01:33 You need to understand really the behavior.
01:35 I mean, social behavior of marine life or wildlife
01:38 are exactly like human beings.
01:41 Sometimes they can be in a good mood,
01:43 sometimes they are depressed,
01:44 sometimes they're having issues among each other.
01:48 So understanding who's who,
01:50 the hierarchy of each one in the family,
01:54 understanding the behavior at the moment,
01:56 being there, I think this is very essential
02:00 in order to have the perfect picture.
02:04 One of these magical moments I will never forget
02:07 when I was in Maldives,
02:08 I had a female pregnant tiger shark coming towards me
02:13 just face by face.
02:16 She passes like just an inch above my head.
02:20 Then where I felt the electrical field just hitting my body,
02:24 I realized, yes, they're surrounded by energy.
02:28 I felt really, really powerful at that moment.
02:32 - You've done lots of different things,
02:34 10, 15 years in the oil and gas sector.
02:37 You've created incredible endurance races,
02:41 coffee businesses, you've been the CEO
02:43 of a famous sports accelerator organization.
02:47 And then in just four short years,
02:50 you pick up a camera, you teach yourself how to use it,
02:53 and then you're featured in National Geographic or Netflix.
02:57 I mean, success has come pretty quickly.
03:00 - I would say passion and dedication
03:02 is the fast way to success.
03:04 I always believe that trail and error is the best school.
03:08 So grabbing the camera, going there,
03:11 having doing a lot of mistakes, trying to learn,
03:14 educate myself by reading,
03:17 watching a lot of YouTube videos
03:23 really helped me to improve my learning curve
03:26 in the last four years.
03:27 Had this pivotal moment in life
03:34 when I decided just to change my career.
03:36 So I decided to go to Iceland.
03:39 There were the first moment I really felt engaged
03:43 with the wildlife, with nature.
03:45 I just disconnected.
03:47 I mean, having the opportunity to watch
03:52 a rotted volcano, having the opportunity to watch
03:55 more than 10 waterfalls a day,
03:59 spending the nights under the stars in a tent.
04:02 I had the basic camera, started taking photos,
04:05 capturing the moments.
04:07 It really inspired me.
04:08 - Well, we've come to another location in Qatar
04:19 that you love.
04:21 The mangroves up here in the north of the country,
04:25 a place of pristine preservation.
04:28 Is it important to you, Azam,
04:30 to represent the natural beauty of Qatar in your work?
04:35 - From a photography perspective,
04:40 I come here, I enjoy aerial photography.
04:42 It gives me a different angle when I take the drone up
04:47 and take the lens.
04:48 It's more abstract.
04:50 So it shows us the beauty scene of the mangroves from above.
04:55 How does the water blends into the mangrove trees
05:01 and the nature life over here.
05:03 I consider myself ambassador of wildlife.
05:06 When I take the picture, I always try to ensure
05:08 that it has this sort of soul momentum in it,
05:12 not just a rigid or solid picture.
05:15 - Azam, I know you see your work very much as art.
05:19 Do you also see it as something that can inspire
05:22 a better connection between human beings
05:24 and nature in the future?
05:25 - I see my work really trying to communicate
05:29 with the audience, not only through the visualization,
05:33 but through the key messages, the words.
05:36 I mean, I feel really happy when I see someone
05:38 standing in front of a picture,
05:39 asking me a lot of questions.
05:43 And after this discussion, he goes
05:45 and he digs beneath the surface to find the answers
05:49 that have been in his mind because of this picture.
05:52 It's not about only the beauty.
05:55 It's about how to create an inspiration
05:59 for others to follow.
06:00 Sometimes it's great to take a break
06:10 and just go out there and rediscover.
06:13 We discover life, we discover ourself,
06:16 we discover the purpose.
06:18 Why are we here?
06:19 And these precious elements of feeling the ground,
06:23 the sand, listening to the, I would say,
06:27 wind blowing into the trees,
06:29 having a water cup from a river, fresh water,
06:35 sleeping in a tent under the stars.
06:38 These are really the essentials of life.
06:41 - When you started your career in photography,
06:45 wildlife was the focus.
06:48 Since then, you've captured some tough situations
06:51 in Lebanon.
06:53 You've worked with young people in Pakistan
06:57 as part of the Education Above All Foundation.
07:00 This shift then from wildlife more to people,
07:04 is this a trend that's gonna continue in your work?
07:07 What's next?
07:08 - With photography, the more you know,
07:11 the more you want to know.
07:12 Every door you open, it opens 10 doors.
07:15 Recently, I've been taking photos of people
07:19 and I'm really loving it.
07:21 And there is many to be explored.
07:23 I believe, I mean, it is my social responsibility
07:26 to highlight these cases,
07:31 to show them, to share them with the world.
07:33 On the list, I've got the snow leopard in Ladakh,
07:37 north of India, got the puma in Patagonia,
07:42 more humbucks in Tonga,
07:44 and there's plenty of places to be discovered.
07:48 - Lots more exciting places to be discovered.
07:50 Azam, thanks so much for inviting the dialogue
07:53 into your world.
07:54 - Thank you.
07:55 (upbeat music)
07:57 (gentle music)
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