Born in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Educated at Loyola University of Chicago and Rome, Thomas L. Kelly first came to Nepal in 1978 as a USA Peace Corps Volunteer, and has since worked as a photo-activist, documenting the struggles of marginalized people and disappearing cultural traditions all over the world. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation he has been recording the lives of sex workers and the traditions of prostitution across South Asia. Thomas has worked extensively for UNICEF, Save the Children Fund (USA), Aga Khan Foundation, Institute of Child Health (ICH), U.K., Department for International Development, (DFID), U.K. on the subject of child prostitution, trafficking, Safer Motherhood/Saving Newborn Lives, Conflict and Resolution, Vaccine Cold Chain, Water and Sanitation and numerous other subjects. His editorial work has appeared in publications worldwide, including, the New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Natural History, USA, Smithsonian,, USA, Archeology Magazine, USA, Aramco, Yoga Journal, Mother Jones, The Sunday Telegraph, U,K., The Observer, U.K.,Le Figaro, Paris Stern, Germany and Geo. From 1990-1991 he was the Corporate photographer for The Body Shop Int., UK specializing in producing and documenting the Press Campaigns of the Company.
Apart from photography, he has produced and directed films and videos on prostitution, violence against women, and esoteric ethnic practices, among other subjects for Discovery Communications, USA, National Geographic, and the BBC. He has researched and photographed the books: Sacred Landscape-Pilgrimage in Tibet: In Search of the Lost Kingdom of Bon, (Abbeville Press, N.Y., N.Y.,) Fallen Angels: Sex Workers of South Asia, Himalayan Mysteries, (Roli Books Int. Lustre Press, New Delhi, India,) Buddhism on the path to Nirvana, Brijbasi Press, New Delhi, India, Tibet: Reflections from the Wheel of Life; The Hidden Himalayas; Kathmandu: City on the Edge of the World, (Abbeville Press, New York, N.Y.), Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World, Viking Penguin,, N.Y., N.Y.
Thomas is currently the AV Technical Advisor for The Youth Expression Project, YEP, a program to help young people (ages 15-23) to identify and voice their concerns about parental and societal values, HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, unwanted pregnancy, and sexual abuse. This project is about aiding them to understand their problems, concerns, hopes, fears, frustrations, and learning how to use media (writing, photography, video) to express those concerns on a public platform. Their media outputs will be directed to parents, teachers and the general public. A South Asian YEP traveling exhibit was presented in October 2006.
E-mail address:Thomas Kelly<tkelly@photo.wlink.com.np>
Tele# 9851026738, 977-1-4438883, 4431954
P.O.Box 1406
Kathmandu, Nepal
www:ThomasKellyPhotos.com
www:WildearthJourneys.com
