DAY 3 :: Photo Kathmandu

DAY #3

I called Shikhar dai before I went to Photo Kathmandu and he suggested me to go to the Patan Museum where the Studio Photos were to be hanged. When I reached Patan, I noticed that the wall we had worked last day was already painted grey. The walls inside the Patan Museum were painted to grey as well. I guess the grey color was a perfect background for black&white photos.

I met the Drilling dai here, his name is Ajay! (hurray! I got his name). We had Abiral, Diwash and Ajay dai in the team there. We unpacked the photos. The Studio Photos were collected from the locals. The collection was possible due to the contributions of the photo owners and their permission to be exhibited. The photos were of a kind! They showed history of Studio Photography since 60s in Nepal.

Nayan Tara dd came and we sorted the photographs into category of Early Studio, Clients, Rebels, Experimentals and sorry, I forgot the name of the other one! We then set the photographs: unhooked few photographs, tied strings (fish-wire to be correct) and put them in order. We waited for Nayan Tara dd to come back and give us further instructions. We waited and waited!

In the mean time, we had snacks and found out that we were special! No one was allowed to stay in the museum after 5 pm. Because we were setting up the photographs, we were allowed to! We learnt that the new wire set up would be bit by mouse that dwelled in the museum. The photos were put in open and it was possible that they could be messed by the monkeys that came to the museum early morning! The policemen assured us that no harm or loss would be done to the photographs as it was their duty to take care of them. The policeman said “93 photographs!” after he counted them twice.

Another dai brought plastic roll and we cut them into half in order to cover the photographs. We also checked the lighting of the site where the opening was scheduled to happen. It was getting late and I headed home!

I meet so many dais but I am not good at names (I guess most of us are not!) In this article I could not use “it” as the pronoun for “photographs”, I guess photographs are ‘alive’ or at least make moments alive! So I have used “them” here.