ARTICLE
NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati
A photographer and curator from Nepal, NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati is known for her documentary and archival work. She is a co-founder of the photography platform photo.circle and its ventures, the digital historical archive Nepal Picture Library (NPL) and the photography festival Photo Kathmandu.
Born in Kathmandu, Kakshapati received a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Studio Art (2005) from Mount Holyoke College and studied documentary photography at the SALT Institute of Documentary Studies, both in the United States. She co-founded photo.circle with Bhushan Shilpakar in 2007, inspired by and with help from the Bangladeshi photojournalist Shahidul Alam. She has since actively shaped and organised the exhibitions, publications, workshops and other projects of photo.circle.
Kakshapati’s documentary work focuses on a range of political issues, including disappearances during the Nepalese civil war (The Long Wait for Justice, 2009–10), ethnic and national identity (Being Nepali, 2010–), and ecological disruption (A Weathered People, 2010). With Diwas Raja KC, Kakshapati co-curated The Public Life of Women (2018) for NPL’s Feminist Memory Project; the book culminating from this exhibition won the 2023 Photography Catalog of the Year award at the Paris Photo-Aperture PhotoBook Awards.
Kakshapati has served as director of Film South Asia and as member of several documentary film and photojournalism selection committees, including for World Press Photo and Invisible Photographer Asia. At the time of writing, she lives and works in Kathmandu.
Bibliography
Adhikari, Prawin. “A Weathered People.” Nepali Times 505 (June 2010). https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17142.
Ahmed, Kaamil. “The Man Who Saw Too Much.” The Caravan, December 1, 2018. Accessed June 3, 2024. https://caravanmagazine.in/media/bangladesh-government-shahidul-alam.
Almagro, Mercedes. “The Other Photos That Stayed with Me: An Interview with NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati.” Witness: World Press Photo, March 10, 2021. Accessed May 28, 2024. https://witness.worldpressphoto.org/the-other-photos-that-stayed-with-me-an-interview-with-nayantara-gurung-kakshapati-c0325da3ba91.
“Being Nepali.” South Asian Visual Arts Centre, January 2016. Accessed May 27, 2024. https://savac.net/residency-nayantara-gurung-kakshapati/.
Bhandari, Aparita. “What Does It Mean to Be Nepalese? Photographer Searches for Answer.” The Globe and Mail, January 22, 2016. Accessed May 27, 2024. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/what-does-it-mean-to-be-nepalese-photographer-searches-for-answer/article28350424/.
“Borderlines Episode 1: Meet NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati from Nepal.” Third Eye Portal. Accessed May 28, 2024. https://thethirdeyeportal.in/collaborations/borderlines-nayantara-gurung-kakshapati-from-nepal/.
Ekin, Annette. “Q&A: Photo Kathmandu Shows ‘Nepal Still Stands’.” Al Jazeera, November 3, 2015. Accessed May 27, 2024. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/11/3/qa-photo-kathmandu-shows-nepal-still-stands.
Godden, Robert. “The Disappeared.” Nepali Times 517 (August–September 2010). https://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/nepalitimes/pdf/Nepali_Times_517.pdf.
Katyal, Manik. “Lens Kumari: Nayantara Gurung Kakshapati.” Emaho. Accessed May 27, 2024. https://emahomagazine.com/lens-kumari-nayantara-gurung-kakshapati/.
Photojournalists Club Nepal. “A Long Wait for Justice: Photo Story, 1st Prize.” Winners of Mega Bank Photo Competition 2067. Accessed May 28, 2024. https://pjclub.com.np/competition-gallery/7/Photo-Competition-2067/.
Sett, Alisha. “Photos Circle: A Short History of the Nepal Picture Library.” Membrana: Journal of Photography, Theory and Visual Culture 2, no. 2 (2017): 56–69.
Siong Chung Hua. “Meet Our 2018 Awards Jury: Nayantara Gurung Kakshapati.” Invisible Photographer Asia, February 28, 2018. Accessed May 28, 2024. https://invisiblephotographer.asia/2018/02/28/juryinterview-nayantara/. https://doi.org/10.47659/m3.056.art.
Sotheavy, Nou. “Faces of Nepal Emerge in New Exhibit.” Khmer Times, May 19, 2015. Accessed May 28, 2024. https://www.khmertimeskh.com/56506/faces-of-nepal-emerge-in-new-exhibit/.
World Bank. “Engaging with Social Change through the Visual Medium.” December 4, 2018. Accessed May 28, 2024. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2018/12/04/engaging-with-social-change-through-the-visual-medium.
World Press Photo. “NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati.” Accessed May 28, 2024. https://www.worldpressphoto.org/person/detail/40611/nayantara-gurung-kakshapati.
