Blogs / Kipekee Founder wins accolades at NHM Wildlife Photographer of the year awards 2025

Kipekee Founder wins accolades at NHM Wildlife Photographer of the year awards 2025

Our Fonder Rahul Sachdev has been awarded the coveted Highly Commended title at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards 2025, hosted by the Natural History Museum, London. Selected from over 60,000 global entries, his image — a slow-shutter portrait of an elephant dissolving into a forest of towering greenheart trees has been recognised for its deeply atmospheric portrayal of harmony between animal and habitat.

“For anyone serious about wildlife photography, standing on the NHM stage someday is the dream. If not everyone, it definitely was mine,” says Sachdev. “To have my work chosen from tens of thousands of entries still feels surreal. It hasn’t fully sunk in.”

This recognition adds to what has been a remarkable year for the Pune-based photographer. In the last twelve months alone, Sachdev has earned accolades from HIPA, Asferico, and now NHM, marking his first visit to London and his debut appearance at the iconic Natural History Museum.

Speaking about the making of the image, he reflects:

“I was dwarfed by the forest just as much as the elephant was. The soil, the trees, the animal everything felt like one living organism. I chose a slow shutter because there was no other way I could convey that sense of oneness. I didn’t make the picture thinking of awards. I just knew I wanted to merge the elephant with the forest, as if they were breathing together.”

“This award feels like one step in a lifelong quest. I carry it with gratitude and humility, and with renewed resolve to keep telling stories from the wild with heart and respect.”

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Kipekee Founder wins accolades at NHM Wildlife Photographer of the year awards 2025

Kipekee Founder wins accolades at NHM Wildlife Photographer of the year awards 2025

There is a kind of travel that doesn’t just take you to new places, but awakens something ancient and remembering within you. That’s the essence of Kipekee Torus—a journey not driven by checklists or crowded itineraries, but by connection, presence, and the quiet pulse of wonder. When you step into the world through this lens, you begin to see travel not as an escape, but as a return—to the Earth, to forgotten rhythms, and to yourself. The landscapes you pass through—sacred mountains, sunlit coasts, winding village paths—are not just scenes for photographs.

They are living stories, and you are invited to be part of them, not as a tourist, but as a witness and participant. With Kipekee Torus, movement becomes meditation. Each step is an act of reverence. Time slows, senses heighten, and what once felt ordinary becomes luminous.

There is a certain humility in traveling this way—an honoring of local wisdom, the land’s spirit, and your own intuition. The torus, a symbol of infinite flow and balance, reflects the nature of these journeys: expansive yet centering, outward-reaching yet always circling back to something essential. Through this journeying, you don’t just collect experiences—you integrate them. The world becomes your mirror, and each encounter, whether with people, places, or silence itself, teaches you something about your place in the greater whole. This is not about going everywhere. It’s about going deeply.

Deep enough that even when the journey ends, something inside you has shifted. And that change—the subtle realignment of heart, mind, and soul—is the true destination.
There is a kind of travel that doesn’t just take you to new places, but awakens something ancient and remembering within you. That’s the essence of Kipekee Torus—a journey not driven by checklists or crowded itineraries, but by connection, presence, and the quiet pulse of wonder. When you step into the world through this lens, you begin to see travel not as an escape, but as a return—to the Earth, to forgotten rhythms, and to yourself. The landscapes you pass through—sacred mountains, sunlit coasts, winding village paths—are not just scenes for photographs.

They are living stories, and you are invited to be part of them, not as a tourist, but as a witness and participant. With Kipekee Torus, movement becomes meditation. Each step is an act of reverence. Time slows, senses heighten, and what once felt ordinary becomes luminous.

There is a certain humility in traveling this way—an honoring of local wisdom, the land’s spirit, and your own intuition. The torus, a symbol of infinite flow and balance, reflects the nature of these journeys: expansive yet centering, outward-reaching yet always circling back to something essential. Through this journeying, you don’t just collect experiences—you integrate them. The world becomes your mirror, and each encounter, whether with people, places, or silence itself, teaches you something about your place in the greater whole. This is not about going everywhere. It’s about going deeply.

Deep enough that even when the journey ends, something inside you has shifted. And that change—the subtle realignment of heart, mind, and soul—is the true destination.There is a kind of travel that doesn’t just take you to new places, but awakens something ancient and remembering within you. That’s the essence of Kipekee Torus—a journey not driven by checklists or crowded itineraries, but by connection, presence, and the quiet pulse of wonder. When you step into the world through this lens, you begin to see travel not as an escape, but as a return—to the Earth, to forgotten rhythms, and to yourself. The landscapes you pass through—sacred mountains, sunlit coasts, winding village paths—are not just scenes for photographs.

They are living stories, and you are invited to be part of them, not as a tourist, but as a witness and participant. With Kipekee Torus, movement becomes meditation. Each step is an act of reverence. Time slows, senses heighten, and what once felt ordinary becomes luminous.