A group of photographers from India and Nepal are pitching a different kind of tent, in the wake of the Himalayan earthquake. They have started a photo blog on Instagram called Nepal Photo Project, capturing visuals of people and places. While it may seem like just an online place to document the aftermath of the terrible tragedy, what makes it unique is that they are using these photos to reunite families, disseminate information about relief material, and send SOS messages on the behalf of the affected to various aid agencies on the ground. The collective, of professional as well as amateur photographers, has also invited submissions from other users. “We thought this would be the best way to put out critical, credible and useful information, all under one banner,” says Delhi-based Tara Bedi, curator of the blog, who is manning the desk in Delhi, while all others are on ground in and around Kathmandu. From India, there is Sumit Dayal (who photographed Narendra Modi and Sachin Tendulkar for the TIME magazine covers) and Altaf Qadri (award-winning AP photojournalist), who are travelling to Kathmandu, while well-known Nepalese photographers Kishor Sharma and Shikhar Bhattarai are also part of the group. They have also uploaded a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ nepalphotoproject), posting links to relief and donation campaigns. Some of their posts read: “There is a large group of volunteers gathering at the Yellow House (Sanepa, Lalitpur) and they are organising citizen volunteer relief groups travelling to the outskirts of KTM and other affected areas” and “A relief camp under way near the Kathmandu airport, set up by the United Nations and World Food Program and assisted by the army”. On the ground, something seems to be working right. For instance, the team at Yellow House started with nine people, now has over 300 volunteers. There are photos showing shopkeepers selling meat, families sitting together in camps and eating, people boarding flights back home, and those who have already started rebuilding their houses. “We make sure our captions are as thorough as they can be so the image becomes useful,” says Bedi. They did something similar for the floods in Kashmir last September. At other times, they run a feed called India Photo Project that showcases fresh and contemporary photography from India. Bedi says, “Once things have settled down, may be a Nepal Photo Project can be a way to document its rebuilding.” (Photo credit: Sumit Dayal)
