Anand Varma

Anand Varma is a National Geographic photographer and founder of WonderLab, a creative studio and learning space, in Berkeley, California, that explores science through high-tech imaging. By blending art, experimentation, and cutting-edge tools, his work reveals unseen worlds and sparks curiosity about how nature works.

Varma grew up exploring the woods near his childhood home in Atlanta, Georgia. As a teenager, he picked up his dad’s old camera on a whim and found that he could use it to feed his curiosity about the natural world—and to share his discoveries with others. He began photographing natural history subjects in earnest while studying Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He went on to spend several years assisting photographer David Liittschwager before receiving a National Geographic Young Explorer Grant to document the wetlands of Patagonia in 2010.

Varma uses photography and video to share the science and stories behind things the naked eye cannot perceive—everything from honeybee growth inside a colony to the mechanics of hummingbird flight, to the mating practices of jellyfish, to hunting habits of vampire bats in the Yucatan rainforest.

He has photographed numerous stories for National Geographic, including the 2014 cover story “Mindsuckers”—revealing the story of the world’s most resourceful parasites, the kind that can alter their hosts’ DNA and even control their minds.

Varma’s recognitions include National Geographic Emerging Explorer, Media Innovation Fellow, Civic Science Fellow, and World Press Photo Award for best nature story. Varma lives in Berkeley, California, where he’s created WonderLab, a one-of-a-kind storytelling studio complete with wind tunnels, tanks, black lights, and every manner of photographic equipment, where he develops innovative photography and videography techniques that push the boundaries of how we understand the wonders of our world, as illustrated in his recent book Invisible Wonders.