Nepal in transition through the lens

Fifty pictures, part of a travelling exhibition from a selection from the book A People War, are a window to what has happened in Nepal since monarchy was made to make way for Maoism.

How does a Nepali view 10 years of that history?

Each of the 80 photographers brings his own baggage so the visuals are shown to celebrate, attack and accept the movement that became mainstream in 2006 and formed the government in 2008.

The exhibition has photographs of archival value.

“The picture of Prachanda was actually captured by the army,” says its curator and Nepali journalist Kunda Dixit. “It was they who showed the world his face. That was the first time we ‘saw’ him.”

A stubbled Prachanda is seen standing with Ram Bahadur Thapa, former defence minister, Baburam Bhattarai, former finance minister, and Hisila Yami, former tourism minister. At the corner stands Prachanda’s son, Prakash Dahal. Other pictures try to put together the Nepal story.

Here you will meet Uma Bhujel, former woman guerrilla and now Constituent Assembly member. A grandfather trying to coax his reluctant 14-year-old grandson to leave the Maoist camp and the boy refusing. Orphans on both sides of the uprising. A boy climbing a goalpost outside an army base even though the barbed wire perimeter between the football field and the sandbagged sentry box is mined.

The exhibition was held at 32 venues across Nepal over three months in 2007-08 and were visited by many of the people in the pictures.