Prince Hussain’s ‘Amazon river dolphin silhouette’ was the runner up in the Portrait Category of this year’s UPY competition.
Nicknamed “The Green Prince,” Prince Hussain Aga Khan has dedicated his career to protecting and preserving marine life in all its forms. For over 20 years he has lent his voice and passion, raising awareness and encouraging wildlife and ecosystem conservation around the globe. His voice and his work have inspired conversations about the global impact of the oceans on science, the environment and contemporary society, which is confronted with climate crisis, species extinction and the destruction of nature.
The Underwater Photographer of the Year (UPY) 2025 competition drew over 6,750 entries from across the world.
UPY Portrait – Runner Up
‘Amazon river dolphin silhouette’ by Hussain Aga Khan
“I spent two weeks in Manaus – where about 10 operators feed the river dolphins, which are a draw to tourists. We visited a pontoon with 4 resident botos and a beach that draws about 7 in daily.
Botos look very unusual compared to other dolphins, with incredibly long rostra – with vestigial hairs on them, tiny eyes and thick bodies.
The idea here was to try to get an unexpected view of a surprising animal most people have never heard about. I also wanted to make it apparent that they live beneath the forest canopy in Coca-Cola-coloured water.
Seeing these dolphins every day for 2 weeks made taking photographs of them incrementally easier as we became familiar with their shape, movement and behaviour and even, to a certain extent, individual characters.”
~ Prince Hussain Aga Khan
Alex Mustard (Judge’s) comment: Eye-catching symmetry is combined with minimalistic graphic elements and a restricted colour palette to create a powerful composition that clearly communicates the unusual anatomy and habitat of the river dolphin. All this and in beautiful light too.
Prince Hussain Aga Khan – Focused On Nature, Founder and Photographer
Prince Hussain Aga Khan was born on April 10th, 1974, in Geneva, Switzerland and is the second son and third of His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan’s four children. He received his secondary education at Deerfield Academy, Massachusetts, and graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts, with a dual degree in theatre and French literature. In 2004, he received a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. At Columbia, Hussain’s main area of study was Economic and Political Development with a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa.
Prince Hussain has been an avid tropical fish hobbyist since the age of five and a reptile and amphibian enthusiast since he was 14. At 14, he started scuba diving and developed a keen interest in conservation. He started travelling to the tropics frequently after secondary school, and began taking photographs of fauna and flora on a trip to the Brazilian Amazon in 1996.
He is Chair of the Board of the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH), focusing mainly on disaster risk reduction and emergency management in Central Asia, Pakistan and India. He also serves on the board of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), and sits on the AKDN Committee, the oversight body of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). Involvement with the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) has centered on the management of the Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan Fund for the Environment. More recently, Prince Hussain joined his brother, Prince Rahim, and key directors of AKDN agencies as a member of the Environment and Climate Change Committee (ECC) in order to work on environmental issues and the impact of climate change in some of AKDN’s priority countries.
An assembly of his rainforest photographs from seven countries, entitled Rainforests and including statistics related to deforestation and biodiversity, appeared in three exhibits in the US in 2004. His work has also been exhibited in Paris at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (2007), in Washington, DC for the And on the Last Day, Plant a Tree exhibit at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (2009), in Verbier at Verbier Green Pioneering Summit and International Mountain Day (2010), at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco for the Blue Ocean Film Festival and for the 10-year anniversary of Prince Albert’s foundation (2015 and 2016 respectively), in Hawaii at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Ocean Conference (2016), and in New York for SIPA’s 70th Anniversary Celebration at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (2017). His photography has been featured at the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi (2018), at the National Museum of Natural History and Science in Lisbon (2019), and most recently his global exhibitions of The Living Sea – Fragile Beauty and The Seas of My Youth were in display in Segovia (2020), Lisbon, London & Venice (2022), Bahrain (2022-3), Palm Beach, Deerfield, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal (2023), Nairobi & Munich (2024).
A permanent Marine Encounters Exhibition & Gallery is on display at Galleria d’Arte on the Cruise ship EXPLORA II, based out of Civitavecchia, Italy from September 15th, 2024 onwards.
Prince Rahim Aga Khan – Focused On Nature, Advisor
Prince Rahim Aga Khan (born in 1971) is the first son and second of His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan’s four children. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, he has been actively involved for many years in governance of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).
Prince Rahim is Chair of the AKDN Environment and Climate Committee (ECC) and sits on either the Board or Executive Committee of most of the AKDN agencies. He also co-chairs AKDN’s Budget Review Committees.
Prince Rahim graduated from Brown University, Rhode Island, USA with a Bachelor’s Degree in Comparative Literature awarded in 1996. He received his secondary education at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. In 2006, he completed an executive development programme in management and administration at the University of Navarra IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. Prince Rahim travels regularly to Asia and Africa to oversee programmes and other projects of the Aga Khan Development Network.
Profile as of Jan 2025.
Other Advisor serving Focused On Nature board include:
- Sylvia Earle – Oceanographer, National Geographic Explorer-In-Residence, Founder of Mission Blue and 2009 TED Prize Winner
- Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE – Founder, Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger Of Peace
- Dr. Denise Herzing – Founder and Research Director of the Wild Dolphin Project
- Kathy Moran – National Geographic magazine’s senior editor for natural history projects
- Thomas Peschak – National Geographic Photographer and National Geographic Explorer, Senior Fellow – International League of Conservation Photographers, Associate Director – The Manta Trust
- Lucas Bustamante – Ecuadorian Conservation Biologist, CEO & Co-Founder, Director of Photography – Tropical Herping, Associated Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP)
- Ashley Prout McAvey – Independent Fund-Raising Professional, Founder VermontForWildlife
- Henning Hegland – Theatre Director, Producer, Entrepreneur
- Tamiko Khalid-Khan – Financial Operations Manager, Cambridge Associates, LLC
- Shari Sant Plummer – President, Code Blue Foundation, Board Member of the Sylvia Earle Alliance and The National Aquarium (Baltimore), Member of the Ocean Unite Advisory Board, WWF National Council, and Nature’s Best Photography Advisory Council
- Jim Angell – Director of Conservation & Board Member of the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation
- David de Rothschild – Founder of the Voice for Nature Foundation
- Robin Moore – Conservationist, Photographer and Author
- Saurabh Dani – Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist at the World Bank
- Ali Hedayat – Founder & Managing Director of Maryana Capital
UPY – An international competition with a long heritage
Why UPY? Historically the UK has been home to some of the world’s most prestigious underwater photography competitions. Bernard Eaton kicked it off when he organised the first Brighton Underwater Film Festival in 1965 (and it was a competition that led to the foundation of the British Society of Underwater Photographers in 1967). Furthermore, Britain continues to be the home of world class wildlife photography competitions, like the WPOTY (http://wildlifephotographeroftheyear.com) and BWPA (http://www.bwpawards.org). But since these only cater for underwater images of wildlife, fifty years after the original Brighton Festival we decided to bring a dedicated and international underwater photography contest back to Britain.
And so the Underwater Photographer of the Year (UPY) Competition was born; Alex Mustard, Dan Bolt and Peter Rowlands reviving a decades old tradition of major international Underwater Competitions run from the UK.
The inaugural competition in 2014/15, judged by Alex Mustard, Peter Rowlands and Martin Edge was a huge success. With over 2,500 images entered from over 40 different countries, the judges (over a two day meeting in the heart of England) had to make a selection from a staggering array of high-class underwater images.
The international press picked up on the results; eventually being published to a huge audience around the globe. The winning images were published in over 12 countries in broadsheet, tabloid, hi-end magazine, online, and social platforms. The free eBook of winning images has been downloaded 10,000s of times. After the London International Dive Show the winning images have been on display at the UK’s Fox Talbot Museum, National Marine Aquairum, South Africa’s Chavonnes Battery Museum and the Danish National Aquarium.
Since 2015, UPY has grown and grown. The 2023 edition attracting a record 6,000 photographs from 500 underwater photographer from around the world. The winning images are seen by millions of people across the world, through widespread coverage from leading media outlets and celebrated by the underwater photography community as the strongest set of underwater photos in any contest.
Prince Hussain Aga Khan – Fine Art Photography
Prince Hussain Aga Khan, an avid environmentalist since he was 12 years old and photographer since he was 22, founded Focused On Nature to assist in the conservation and protection of threatened and endangered species, as well as the conservation of under threat habitats.
As an avid photographer, Prince Hussain has taken some truly remarkable photographs of some of the world most beautiful and endangered species. From photographing marine life whilst free diving to roaming the great plains of East Africa in search of elusive shots of endangered species, Prince Hussain’s photographs aim to inspire this and future generations to protect our environment.,
Prince Hussain’s work has been exhibited in Bahrain; Calgary, Montreal & Toronto (Canada); Garches & Paris (France); Munich (Germany); Civitavecchia & Venice (Italy); Nairobi (Kenya); Monte Carlo (Monaco); Lisbon (Portugal); Segovia (Spain); Stockholm (Sweden); Geneva & Verbier (Switzerland); Dubai (UAE); London & Oxford (UK); Deerfield, Greenwich, Hawaii, New York, Palm Beach, Philadelphia & Washington DC (USA).
By generously placing his entire portfolio at the disposal of Focused On Nature for sale, proceeds from Prince Hussain’s limited edition photographs are donated to environmental projects that have immediate impact in wildlife conservation, protection, preservation and education.
Collections of his photographs have been published in 3 books, Animal Voyage in 2004 (a new editions was printed in 2007), Diving into Wildlife in 2015 and The Living Sea in 2022. Some of Hussain’s photographs have appeared on National Geographic blogs.
Since 2009 his focus has mainly been on underwater photography, especially of turtles, sharks, whales and dolphins.
Click here to view Hussain Aga Khan’s exhibitions and publications.
Research, Insight & Perspective by A. Maherali
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Accelerate your awareness and find out what Global Leaders are saying about His Late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV | Constellation of Honours: Over 300 Accolades from 55 Countries
Discover, Explore & Learn more via:
- BBC – Discover Wildlife | 16 otherworldly images from Underwater Photographer of the Year 2025
- Underwater Photographer of the Year (UPY) | UPY Portrait – Runner Up
- Underwater Photographer of the Year (UPY) | About Us – Competition History
- Focused on Nature | Hussain Aga Khan’s exhibitions & a selection of publication
- La Fabrica (Book Description) | Hussain Aga Khan, The Living Sea
- Venice Civic Museums Foundation | Exhibition & Virtual tour of “The Living Sea” by Prince Hussain Aga Khan and Simone Piccoli at the Museum of Natural History of Venice Giancarlo Ligabue
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Ismailimail 
Shukhar, amazing work. Thankyou for sharing with us this unique capture.Sent from my iPhone IGMawji
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