Nepali photo festival aims to share country's stories

By Deepak Adhikari

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AA) – One of South Asia’s biggest photography festivals opened Friday in the courtyard of a centuries-old palace in the Nepali capital Kathmandu, bringing together dozens of photographers and their work from 20 countries.

The two-week festival being held in the Kathmandu Valley's historic Patan Darbar Square, which was devastated in last year’s earthquake, is “a way of taking Nepali stories across the world,” says its director Nayan Tara Gurung Kakshyapati.

“It serves as an alternative platform for conversations between visual storytellers and local audiences. By taking the photos to the streets of Patan, the festival attempts to make the exhibitions more accessible to the public,” she said.

“All of our print exhibitions are in public spaces around Patan, on walls in the streets and little alleyways. There are also exhibitions in public chowks and patis, historically public spaces where residents of Patan congregate to relax and talk,” she said.

She said the festival sought to promote Nepal as vibrant cultural destination and support the reconstruction of tourism devastated by the earthquake.

“Kathmandu … is a natural place for South Asians to congregate. We hope that the festival will help Kathmandu grow into a regional hub for the arts and culture,” she said, adding this year’s event will feature works that portray resilience and revival.

Alongside the exhibitions, aspiring photographers will have the chance to have their work reviewed by renowned photographers including Patrick Witty, Deputy Director of National Geographic, Pablo Bartholomew and Kevin Bubriski, whose work focuses on Nepal.

Indian photographer Ronny Sen, who is giving a talk on Saturday entitled "the journey is the destination" on his award-winning work on exploitation in the coal mines of eastern India, said he loved Photo Kathmandu because it allowed everyone to attend.

“The festival is exactly the opposite side of the gallery and the museum scene: it’s more accessible and out in the public and the city benefits a lot from it. It’s great that Kathmandu has this show,” said the Calcutta-based photographer, who recently won a $10,000 grant sponsored by Getty Images and Instagram.

Sen, who began his project after working as a translator for two French filmmakers, said he felt obliged to document the life of the people who called the sprawling mines their home.

“Many villages which were once thriving don’t exist anymore. They have simply vanished, While some people have shifted elsewhere for better opportunities, there’s a big population which calls Jharia home and keeps shifting along the blasting mines,” he said.

Around 200,000 people visited the exhibitions when it debuted last year amidst the ruins of the earthquake.