220: Conservation Photographer Tony Bynum on Photography, Hunting and Responsibility
About this episode
The episode features a conversation with conservation photographer Tony Bynum about the intersection of photography, hunting, and responsibility towards nature.
This episode features one of the most important conversations about hunting and impacts on nature that I can remember in 10 years of making the podcast. It's not surprising though as our guest today is a long-time supporter and friend of the podcast, Tony Bynum . Tony is an accomplished wildlife photographer who spent 15 years travelling the world photographing people hunting. He is a geographer by training with a master's degree in science and has managed scientific projects across the United States. He also worked in two presidential administrations at the Environmental Protection Agency. On top of all that, Tony is a lifelong hunter and angler with Native American heritage that deeply influences his approach to conservation and land ethics. Our conversation starts with a famous quote from José Ortega y Gasset suggesting that photography can never replace hunting because one is mere observation and the other is participation. Tony challenges this view with a perspective I hadn't considered before. Are photographers really just observers? What personal decisions has Tony made about his own photography as a result of his views? And how do traditional stories shape our connection…
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