http://www.digitalcameraworld.com OCTOBER 2019 DIGITAL CAMERA^137
Above: A panda keeper
does a health check on
the cub of giant panda
Xi Mei at Wolong Nature
Reserve in Sichuan
province, China.The first one captured alive was in 1936, which is
shocking. It’s not that long ago. They tried to breed
them in captivity because they understood they
were highly endangered and they wanted to create
a population of 300 in captivity. They couldn’t
figure out how to breed them. They were doing
everything, even showing ‘panda porn’ to
the males and giving them Viagra.
Then they figured out that pandas can only get
pregnant for 24-72 hours in a year, which is not
a big window, and that they need to give the female
panda a little more diversity in their choice of males.
How difficult do you find life on the road?
It can be exhausting. Most of the time I’m in East
Africa and then home in Montana when I get a chance.
We take a lot of stuff for granted because we’re in
a state of movement and chaos. It’s always kind
of abrasive when I come back and my friends
have family and children, and everything’s so
regimented. They must look at people like us
like we’re totally insane, which we probably are.Was the conflict in Kosovo your first
experience of war photography?
Yes. I was living in the Czech Republic at the time,
and I started to hear stories of a war brewing in our
backyard. I couldn’t get the stories out of my mind
of children fleeing the conflict with the clothes they
were wearing, climbing mountains in the middle of
winter. Something inside of me knew I had to go.
I quit my job. Overnight, I went from an amateur
photographer to a war photographer. I don’t
recommend doing that, because of the safety
of other people around you, not yourself.What did it take to be a war photographer?
A lot of empathy. Also, figuring things out really
quickly, before you even go; having people on
the ground who can guide you a little bit. I worked
with local journalists. They showed me where
I needed to be, and how to do this.
What I learned really quickly is that I didn’t need
to be on the frontlines. Showing the horrors of war
is important. But I felt that showing the stories
of resilience and people not on the frontline isAmi^ VitaleAmi Vitale