01 Cultural evolution research
02 Open-source scientific software
03 Data visualisation & design
04 Documentary cinematography
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Visual Work
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Cinematographer

Awaken

Cinematography for Tom Lowe's feature documentary, following the last Tsaatan reindeer herders through the mountains of northern Mongolia.

Mongolia Tsaatan reindeer herders — Awaken
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Researcher

Cultural evolution of bird song

Studying how song culture evolves in wild great tit populations. 950,000+ notes analysed across generations using custom ML pipelines.

Oxford Wytham Woods, field research
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Camera Operator

Voyage of Time

Camera operator on Terrence Malick's Voyage of Time. Shot across four continents over three years.

On set Northern Mongolia, 2014
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Founder

sedum.studio

Data visualisation and consulting studio. Transforming complex scientific datasets into clear, compelling visual narratives.

Doñana Little egret
01 / 04

I study how culture evolves in nature, build open-source tools for science, and design data visualisations. Before academia, I spent five years as a documentary cinematographer — shooting for Terrence Malick and Tom Lowe across four continents.

Get in touch

nilo.recalde@biology.ox.ac.uk

Available for consulting, research collaborations, and visualisation projects.

© 2026 Nilo Merino Recalde