DAY 2 :: Photo Kathmandu

DAY #2

I called Nirman dai to know the location of today’s work. He asked me to come to Mul Chowk, Patan. The work had already started there. I met my friend Labes after two whole years! I was amazed to meet him here. He was working as a videographer in the event. There were too many people there so I asked Nayan Tara didi if I could assist somewhere else. She took me to Kevin Bubriski.

Kevin Bubriski is exhibiting his photographs that he took 30 years ago in several parts of Nepal. Shikhar Bhattarai was the leader here. Nayan Tara didi, Kevin and Shikhar dai were figuring out how to put on the pictures on the wall. The wall was painted white and it was difficult to look at it. They decided to paint it grey later on. Abiral, Saral and few others were on the team. The only thing they were told to do the whole morning was to unwrap the newspaper from the pictures. Nayan Tara didi would be on the phone most of time. I guess she had time for herself. She seemed too busy.

Few more discussions and nothing came up. At 1 pm they took a snack break while Saral and I stayed to look after the pictures. Lots of visitors were observing the pictures. After they came, Saral and I went for the break. The place was too crowded. We stood for 10 minutes just to get a seat! The bara was too tasty!!

I was confused by how they were working. I guess they were confused as well. I suggested them to take proper measurements so that the nails could be nailed precisely. We had to hang 35 pictures on three walls. We started at 3 pm. The first wall was completed in an hour and half. Yesterday’s work helped me today. The metal frame behind the wall had made it difficult to drill in the nails. Saral, Abiral, Sulav worked enthusiastically. Kevin seemed quite confident that the work would be easily completed. He took a break then.

Then Rohan dai (he is Bengali!) came in. we asked him to shoot us framing the second wall in time lapse mode. He was happy to do it. The second wall was done in 30 minutes. It would had been faster if the shorter nails were available sooner or the drilling dai had come earlier!

The drilling dai (I do not know his name yet) made it faster for us to work. The third wall was about to be completed when we realized that there had been a measurement mistake. The whole wall had to be re-measured and the nails had to be un-nailed (if it is a correct word) and nailed again at the correct positions. Since it had been dark, it became more difficult to work. Thanks to the street lamp. People would come to us and ask about the pictures and we would reply to them that this is just an set up and that the exhibition would start on November 3. I met Anish Chitrakar dai and few other AOLies while I was working. I got to see the Camera Obscura being made in the Yala House. I met Aru there. Ronish. Nidu and Drilling dai helped a lot.

Today I got to use some of my Engineering knowledge! Shikhar dai loos like Newar but he is not. I am happy to see lot of professional photographers around me J