photo.circle : Retelling Histories

Retelling Histories

16 - 18 September 2011

As some of you may know, we have recently embarked on an exciting archiving journey that has begun to unearth very interesting material. Our archive, formally known as the Nepal Picture Library is showcasing a selection of work from its personal history collection during the upcoming Kathmandu Literary Jatra this weekend.

It gives us immense pleasure to invite you to this debut showcase of

Stories from old family photo albums
Curated by NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati

16 – 18 SEPTEMBER 2011
10 AM – 7 PM

MANGA HITI, PATAN DURBAR SQUARE
KATHMANDU LITERARY JATRA

History begins at home. Retelling Histories is a personal history project that explores this central idea by digging up, archiving, and contextualizing photographs from old family photo albums.

The photographs for this exhibition were collected from a cross section of Nepali family albums. The stories were written in most cases by the immediate family members of the people pictured in the photographs or the people who took them – sons and grand-daughters and great-grandnephews, telling stories from their own personal histories and reclaiming a long overshadowed collective past.

Some photographs do not have texts. We do not know the names of the people in them, where they were taken, the time or occasion. This lack of information leaves us to the devices of our imaginations, coloured by our memories and assumptions. It paves the path for a fictitious journey, challenging us to imagine what life must have been like then, and to reflect beyond our limited knowledge of history while confronting us with the complexities of everyday life.

The project is part of the Nepal Picture Library, a photo archive that has been recently set up by photo.circle. The Nepal Picture Library hopes to contribute to the study of Nepali photography, as well as generate knowledge and raise questions about how we can explore issues of memory, identity, and history through images.

The Nepal Picture Library would like to thank the Embassy of Denmark for its support, and Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya for its friendship in this initial set-up period.

See you at the exhibition!