A British citizen, Freiheit was born in Germany and partly grew up in Denmark. But he considers Nepal his second home as after he first visited the country some nine years back, he has been coming back time and again.[break]
He has conducted numerous workshops in Nepal and this is his eleventh time here where he is finalizing the production of his sixth TV program on the issue of single women and Hindu widows for NTV Plus and Image Channel in collaboration with Today’s Youth Asia (TYA).
He is also one of the curators of Images Festival, a cultural festival in Denmark in collaboration with Danish Centre for Culture and Development (CKU), with its photographic project open for young Nepali photographers as well.
The Week met Freiheit to talk more about photography and his workshops.
Keshab Thoker
How did you start your journey in photography?
I started off by doing a lot of fashion work as a photographer and I worked in establishing fashion magazines in Denmark and Scandinavia. Every time when we finished a story, I would find it good but I always questioned myself about how it could be a little bit better. I wasn’t satisfied completely as I wanted to do stories my way. So I thought of exploring more. I have always been mostly interested in faces, portraits and humans. Since fashion includes modeling, there was a lot of interesting ways of doing it but I thought that it would be more interesting to find local people in the Czech Republic or Cuba and use them in fashion stories to make it more like a documentary. So I ended up doing a lot of that and that’s how I got started.
What inspires you the most?
When I look back, I’ve always been very visually interested. I used to paint and still do. I remember that, as a kid, I had a small plastic camera and I went to a zoo, and since I wasn’t so tall, I took pictures of a giraffe from really strange angles. It’s not super good photos but it’s still fun to remember those days. I always had passion for art that includes painting, music, filmmaking and photography. I’m a very curious person as well, so I like to try reading people’s faces, situations and I also imagine what’s going on even when I don’t understand the language. I like stories and I like telling stories through pictures, which is why I moved from fashion photography to portrait photography.
I would say good art and music inspires me. But what inspires me the most is when people have clear ideas about what they want and live by their own rules. Changes inspire me a lot, that’s why I keep coming here.
How has your experience been like to work for the documentary on Hindu widows? What other projects are you working on?
Today, I work with lots of musicians, do a lot of music videos, record covers and work with actors, and on the other side, we do a lot of organizational and NGO’s works. Years ago, we had met Lily Thapa in Denmark where I got to know about her story and her organization, Women for Human Rights. It just touched me a lot to hear about that. The TV program came about as we wanted to show ill cultural practices that still exist here and touch on issues of human and “sati pratha” practices.
It’s been very hard as well as inspiring. Some of the stories we get are of young women who were treated very badly, some thrown out of villages and abused and threatened even by their family members. Some of the young women’s husbands were killed in brutal ways during the Maoist insurgency. And it’s been unbelievable to hear about what some people can go through without losing their mind. We’re finalizing it as it’ll be broadcast in November.
How did you start conducting workshops in Nepal?
We’ve done photographic workshops with TYA and exhibited works of Nepali students in Copenhagen. I was asked by the Danish Embassy to do a program with students of TYA and I was surprised to see around sixty eager students participating, though it was a Saturday. So when I was in Denmark, I asked them to send me to Nepal where I would teach for one week and then we could exhibit the photos of the students. So I started conducting several photographic workshops at TYA. The participants were novices while some a bit more advanced. It’s a great pleasure to see photography developing here gradually.
What’s the main concept of your workshops?
There are many workshops happening, but usually they are expensive and targeted to the elite where you need to have money and SLR camera which is alright for the well-to-do crowd. But for me, it’s been important to plan workshops where everybody can participate no matter what is your social rank or caste or how much money you have. TYA is good at doing that. We also encourage female photographers, as I also believe that it’s healthy for the media to have both female reporters and photographers.
Tell us something about the photographic project, “Things you can’t buy with money.”
The project is open to all where photographers will be paid US$40 per selected photos. I’m collaborating with young photographers in Burma/Myanmar, Bangladesh, Mali and I’m looking for young photographers from Nepal too. As per the theme, you have to photograph things that you can’t buy for money. The exhibitions will be held both outdoors on big posters and indoors in galleries during the festival in Denmark. So it’ll be a great chance for young photographers to promote themselves abroad.
The most important thing is that you don’t just click a photo and assume that it’s nice, as you need to think about what exactly you want to say through the picture. For instance, with the theme of our project, “Things that you can’t buy with money,” many people will say love but that’s what everybody says, too. So you should be able to explore beyond the common thinking. What makes a good photo is when there are many thoughts in it and you aren’t just satisfied with one thought in a photo. It’s like a good art where there are many layers of meaning which can be interpreted in many ways.
What were and are your challenges as a photographer?
The first years were difficult and I even worked for free for advertising agencies, and there was little money. But I can now make a living out of this profession, and the best part is that I can photograph what I want. Initially, it was difficult for me to distinguish between art and commercial art as it isn’t necessary to work for free for a commercial company. But I learnt that slowly. But it’s an advantage that I’ve tried that as well. Even now, when I meet a young upcoming rock band whose members can’t pay me much for their entire photo shoot, I’ll do it anyway because it’s not about money. I myself was very well received and many people have helped me on my journey. So I feel that I have an obligation to pass on something that I learn to the younger generation; that’s why I conduct workshops.
What are your upcoming plans? Do you have any suggestions for emerging photographers?
For the last few years, I’ve been working with many photographers and they also have been giving their time for my personal work. I feel that I’m ready to exhibit my own work and I’m focusing on producing that after the big exhibition in Denmark to which, too, I’m contributing my work.
I think, as a photographer, it’s very important to look at the things that happen around you everyday, even things that you think are the most normal, because it might be very interesting to people who live in other cultures. I also have the tendency to get used to things and when I am too used to things, I don’t see them anymore. So, as a photographer, you need to have an eye for things around you. So explore much more, as the new generation can live with photography as a profession.
To participate in the photographic project “Things you can’t buy with money,” you can contribute with a maximum of 10 images per photographer by sending your edited digital TIFF files to freiheitphotography@gmail.com.
nistha.rayamajhi11@gmail.com
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