Amongst other genres of photography, though fashion photography was first observed in 1909 through the French magazine La Mode Practique, the trend came quite late in Nepal with Rajiv Shrestha beginning fashion photography only in 1990. After Shrestha, Raj Bhai Suwal shares equal credit for taking fashion photography to the next level of understanding. Of late, Kishor Kayastha’s experimental fashion photography is giving a different perception to this genre.
Before these three lensmen hit the fashion photography scene in Nepal, there were only Bhim Rana and Samagya Lakaul of Photo Concern Studio who did some portrait shoots. Existing magazines like Kamana and Roop Ranga didn’t care much about incorporating fashion photography until Rajiv Shrestha did a full-fledged fashion shoot of actress Karishma Manandhar in 1990 wherein she advertised the tube dress. This was both appreciated and criticized in the capital then.
A trained fashion photographer from Mumbai, Rajiv Shrestha’s idea of promoting fashion photography in Nepal didn’t get much respect in the initial days.
“I was even accused of forcing Nepali celebrities to pose naked,” revealed Shrestha. “As a trained photographer from Mumbai, I could’ve easily settled back there with my brother Rakesh Shrestha who’s a renowned fashion photographer in Bollywood. But I never gave up and decided to push fashion photography in Nepal.”
When Shrestha did another fashion shoot with a model posing in a two-piece suit, it raised a big scandal and he had to go back to Mumbai for some months.
But with the growth of television channels in Nepal during 1998, Nepalis started digesting the idea of fashion photography. Meanwhile, Raj Bhai Suwal came up as another glamour photographer. He associated himself with the Miss Nepal Beauty Pageant in 1997, which was three years after the establishment of the contest. Since then, he has remained the official photographer of the coveted competition.While Rajiv Shrestha focuses on the Nepali film industry, Raj Bhai Suwal works mainly with models and products, while Kishor Kayastha is popular for his experimental fashion photos splashed creatively on ECS magazine.
For glamour photography, Rajiv Shrestha uses Nikon F3/F4/F5 and a Canon 5D; Suwal uses small- and medium-format equipment, while Kayastha uses a Canon DS Mark2.
CURRENT TRENDS
Both Shrestha and Kayastha comment that in recent days the whole idea of fashion photography is going haywire. It should be promoting products creatively but ironically, it is selling faces, say both photographers.
“Websites like www.cybersansar.com and other such websites are misinterpreting what fashion photography is. The whole bunch of new amateur photographers is taking this genre the other way round,” opined Shrestha. “It’s the same positioning, same props and same lighting with just different faces, and that too manipulates what defines fashion photography today.”
Kishor Kayastha elaborated, “People are producing fashion photographs like they are producing bread. As a result, we’re degraded quality-wise. Fashion photography doesn’t limit itself to cleavages and thighs. Sadly, we’ve limited ourselves to such things. The best example of it is the absence of male models in fashion photography in Nepal.”
Kayastha also said that large-scale advertising companies of Nepal don’t have faith in Nepali fashion photographers.
“These companies can pay above 10 million Rupees for one photo shoot of a product if it’s shot by international photographers. When we’re able to produce better than what the international photographers can, they hesitate to pay us even half the amount,” Kayastha complained.
In a nutshell, Kayastha says he’s already frustrated working as a fashion photographer in Nepal because there’s hardly anyone who can pay for his concept.
He added, “I don’t charge for photos, I charge for my concept. Elsewhere, photographers are paid handsomely for their concept. But here? Forget about living by what we earn – we can’t even buy a new lens for our camera. Besides, most companies can’t pay me the amount I charge them. I may soon be heading out like many others.”
On the other side, Rajiv Shrestha says the whole scenario isn’t all that bad. It’s just that young photographers are misunderstanding the whole idea of fashion photography, and are misusing the digital format for manipulation in fashion photography.
“Adobe Photoshop is not fashion photography. Manipulating means finding an easy way out, misinterpreting the reality, and killing your creativity,” he said as much.
Kayastha has a different point of view on this: “A lot of people say I manipulate pictures. I call it enhancing. Concepts can never be stereotyped, it must be experimental. The problem with Nepalis is they only say photography. We should start saying it’s an art.”
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