Surviving as a wildlife photographer

Photo/China Daily

According to the 36-year-old, his dream to be a wildlife photographer was born while he was attending Beijing Forestry University, where he studied between 1996 and 2000.He joined the university's mountaineering and environmental protection societies, and volunteered for several public campaigns to raise environmental awareness." I turned from being an outdoor enthusiast to conservationist in college," he says.

In 1997, he met Xi Zhinong, one of the country's leading wildlife photographers whose photos of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys helped protect the endangered species' last habitat in northwestern Yunnan province, during a conservation-themed summer camp held for college students in the province.

Later, he realized that wildlife photography is a good way to combine his two passions." From Xi, I knew that photos could truly contribute to conservation," he says.

After graduation, he started working as a reporter and editor for the Beijing-based Geographic Knowledge magazine, which later changed its name to Chinese National Geographic. But he struggled to travel for more than a week and soon found that photographers' remunerations were so meager that it was impossible for them to make ends meet.

He joined Xi's Wild China Film Studio in 2007, and "learned a lot" from him. Even someone as successful as Xi, he found, couldn't make a living by selling wildlife photos in the country.

He became a freelance wildlife photographer in 2008, doing projects for various conservation NGOs." To be honest, I could support myself by working for NGOs," Xu says.