Miscellaneous
Through the lens again
The emergence of the digital has made it possible for so many in Nepal to try their hands at photography. From here on, it’s highly likely that the media will be experimented for the better.Nhooja Tuladhar
We should consider ourselves quite lucky that the camera we have in our phones can take pictures in a fraction of a second, let alone 5D owners whose cameras can go upto six frames per second. Since we’ve been given that privilege in an era when the prices of good cameras are always going down, it makes sense that there are many camera owners who have taken to experimenting with their instrument. Artudians–students from Artudio–have done just that through an exhibition titled Euta Sapana, a weeklong photo exposition that was inaugurated on Sunday. The show features a total of 114 images, probably one of the biggest photo-shows, as far as participation numbers go, in Nepal.
Artudio, a centre for visual art, has been taking in photo enthusiasts and placing them in 13-day workshops for the past three years now. The basics of photography are taught through the process of sharing, at a monthly workshop. Professional photojournalists and artists come in and talk to the participants about the art of photography. Kailash Shrestha, a visual artist and the one who leads the show, says that the primary reason for the workshop is not to create photographers, but to increase the value of the art form. “In Artudio, we are trying to help people appreciate photographs and the art of photography,” he says.
Artudio has three levels of photo-workshops: level-one is targeted at photo enthusiasts, level-two is a little more advanced full-fledged practical course for amateur photographers, and three is for those who want to specialise in a certain genre of the form. Till date, the institute has successfully completed 39 level-one workshops, attended by more than 450 participants. The ongoing exhibition–at the ground floor of the Nepal Art Council, Babarmahal– is a collective effort of 78 Artudio level-one graduates who have come together to showcase their works.
“I had been planning on a collective exhibition for two years now but something kept it from materialising,” says Shrestha. “Obhaso Shakya, who was a student at Artudio, called me up and said the graduates wanted to get together to do an exhibition. I asked them to go right ahead.”
Most of the works that are hung on the walls of the venue are glimpses of Nepal and the Nepali. There are faces, architecture and mountains. Each one has a different story to tell. Some even have captions in the form of quotes made by famous people while some have documentary-style descriptions of the image. While most are representational, there are some that have leaned towards the abstract, exploring textures and the effects light has over certain objects. Some are expressive. There is symbolism too. The exhibition doesn’t base itself on a fixed idea or a theme, and that makes it all the more promising. But unmistakably, most of them are content-based.
“Photo-journalism is a dominant genre of photography in Nepal and I think the creative side to the media has to be brought up as well,” says Shrestha. Apart from journalistic photographs, landscapes and some portraitures, more experimental genres like fine-art photography are still alien to Nepal. There are but a handful of photographers who have been experimenting with a camera through an artistic eye. “Whenever a new workshop session begins, my first priority is to explain to the participants that photography is an art form, and I try to best explain the importance of the basic elements of art to them,” Shrestha adds. Ultimately, lines, colours, shapes, values and forms are the visual elements that are captured in a photograph–very similar to all the things a painter or a sculptor would experiment with. Besides, photography as an art medium has been heavily explored in other parts of the world for some time now. But here, they are all about blue skies, snowcapped mountains and hills layered together or faces that stand out against ‘bokehed’ backgrounds. Unlike two decades ago, when the process involved buying film reel and developing them, now, a photographer can take and preview as many photographs as desired.
So, there are virtually no constrains as long as one possesses a camera. So what better time than now, to experiment? Abstract photography could be one area that photographers might start working with more. “People talk about abstraction in photos, but most only view low-shutter movements as the way to create the abstract. So I sometimes try and share with participants what abstract could really mean,” says Shrestha. In one of his classes, he asked everybody to jot down five words that make her/him feel good. Words like mother, happiness, love, nature were written.
Then Shrestha asked the attendees to take pictures that related to these words. “You can take a photograph of your mother, but how do you take a photograph of happiness?” quips Shrestha, who it seems, is trying to explain a level of abstraction of emotions to a fresh batch of novice photographers. Teaching students how to operate a machine is one thing, but teaching them how to think in novel ways is something else. It’s almost like providing the students with a new way of doing things with their cameras. Because these days one can learn to operate a camera staying home and browsing the Internet, the kind of guidance Shrestha provides is crucial. For dilettantes experimenting on their own, it’s the approach that can get confusing and it’s the choices that are difficult to make.
Nepali photography is evolving precisely because of people like Shrestha. And through people like Sarad Rai, an academician who teaches and writes on the subject, and Nayantara Gurung Kakshapati, who through Photocircle has played an instrumental role in creating platforms for documentary photographers. Shrestha and his friends at Artudio are attempting to create space for the medium within mainstream Nepali culture. But it’s still a very small community and has yet to bloom.
“Photography started growing in Nepal and Bangladesh during the same time. But as of now, the Bangladeshi photography culture has reached new heights, which we haven’t been able to attain,” says Bikram Rai, a photojournalist. A major drawback could be because here in Nepal, appreciation for the art is still non-existent. But with many people and organisations working together to educate the artistes and the viewers alike, it’s only a matter of time before the scene here catches up with the rest of the world. With a medium that is accessible to almost everybody, it is not difficult for it to be one that is rendered quotidian through overuse. But if the practitioners experiment and find creative and innovative approaches to telling stories, things could get very interesting.