LONG, RUGGED ROAD TO REPUBLIC

More than 13,000 people were killed and 1,00,000 displaced since the communist rebels launched their armed struggle against the state in 1996. King Gyanendra's direct rule ended in April 2006 after the rebels entered talks on how to end the civil war. A landmark peace deal was agreed in November and in early 2007 the Maoists joined an interim government. In Nepal, April 10th 2008, was the historic day for the people of Nepal as this was the day when Nepali people for the first time vote for a constituent assembly to decide their own fate, the fate of monarchy and write their own constitution. CPN-Maoist won the highest number of seats in the election and became the largest political party of the Nepal. The maoist joined the main stream politics in 2006 after fighting decade long arm conflict. Nepal has been declared as a Republic country, doing away with the 239 years old monarchy of the Shah dynasty.

About

Sailendra Kharel, (b. 1982) is a photojournalist based in Kathmandu, Nepal having deep interest in investigative socio-political human documentary stories. He started his career as a photojournalist in 2004, covering the armed conflict in western Nepal for the Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post, Nepal’s leading Nepali and English national dailies. In 2007, he completed his diploma in photojournalism given from IIJB, German. He is currently a student of BA in Journalism.

In 2007, he got an opportunity to take part for free to attend in WORKSHOPASIA, a documentary photo workshop conducted by Jack Picano, Steve Coleman and Stephen Dupont in Kathmandu. On the same year he was selected as one of 30 young emerging Asian photographers, to participate in a Free Photo documentry Workshop at the Angkor Photography Festival, in Cambodia. In 2007 itself, Kharel won 1st prize in Environment and 3rd prize in Feature category in local Press Photo Contest (NFPJ).

His work has been widely published and exhibited in Nepal. Nationally and internationally, his pictures have been published in OGlobo (Brazil), The Alps Magazine (Switzerland), BBC Online, Tehelka (India), Himal South Asian, Kantipur Daily, The Kathmandu Post, Nepal Magazine, Himal Magazine, Nepali Times, A People’s War (book on Nepal’s Conflict), etc.

For him, “photography is an art of expressing human psychology through light”.

Sailendra Kharel's current location:
Kathmandu , Nepal

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LONG, RUGGED ROAD TO REPUBLIC

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