The other photos that stayed with me: An interview with NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati
The chair of the 2021 World Press Photo Contest jury shares eight of her favorite nominated photos and stories
NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati lives in Kathmandu, Nepal, and works at the intersections of visual storytelling, research, pedagogy, and collective action.
In 2007, she co-founded photo.circle, an independent artist-led platform that facilitates learning, exhibition making, publishing, and a variety of other trans-disciplinary collaborative projects for Nepali visual practitioners. In 2011, she co-founded Nepal Picture Library, a digital archiving initiative that works towards diversifying Nepali socio-cultural and political history. NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati is also the co-founder and festival director of Photo Kathmandu, an international festival that takes place in Kathmandu every two years.
As the World Press Photo Foundation announced the nominees for the 2021 Photo Contest on 10 March, we asked NayanTara to select her favorite images that didn’t make it for the World Press Photo of the Year or World Press Photo Story of the Year nominees.
Waiting for Release at a Temporary Detention Center in Belarus
Nadia Buzhan, Belarus
Olga Sieviaryniec waits for her husband Paval outside a detention center on Akrestsin Street, Minsk, Belarus, on 22 July 2020.
Paval Sieviaryniec had been held on remand since 7 June, and his family had learned he was about to be released. Olga waited outside the prison for two hours, but Paval was not freed. Paval Sieviaryniec is a Christian Democrat politician and a well-known political activist. He is one of the founders of Youth Front, a youth movement supporting civil society based on Christian-democratic principles and the free market, and the education of young people to revive Belarusian national culture and language. He was arrested while collecting signatures in support of candidates to stand against President Alexander Lukashenko in his bid for a sixth consecutive term in office. Lukashenko had been in power since 1994.
Dubbed ‘Europe’s last dictator by media outlets, he had frequently repressed opposition, and had not had a serious challenge to his leadership in the previous five elections. Amnesty International considers Paval Sieviaryniec a prisoner of conscience. He was still in prison in early 2021, partly in solitary confinement and unable to meet with a lawyer. He was denied access to books and television, and his Bible was taken from him.
“This pensive photograph was presented to us in the Spot News category and has lingered on my mind perhaps because of how unnervingly silent and still it is. This frame from Minsk reminds me of how authoritarianism and the crackdown on civil society and media is also raging here at home in Nepal, in Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, and the rest of the world. In its own quiet way, the photograph marks the convictions of so many activists, journalists, students, artists, bloggers, comedians, and human rights defenders who continue to speak truth to power despite brutal suppression and incarceration.”
Home Training
Stephen McCarthy, Ireland, Sportsfile
Masters athlete Pat Naughton (87) trains at his home in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland, while under COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, on 4 May 2020.
Naughton retired from athletics in his late 20s, having won his third Irish decathlon title, but took up the sport again as he approached 40. Masters athletics is a class comprising athletes over the age of 30, divided into age categories, each spanning five years. Events include track and field, road running and cross-country running. People as old as 105 have competed. A global governing body, World Masters Athletics, coordinates official world rankings for athletes. Since taking up sports at a masters level, Naughton has competed in the 60 meters and in long jump, high jump and shot put, winning more than 330 medals.
“This photograph is such a great sports photo for a year marked by COVID-19. The photograph takes us straight into Pat’s home, into a living room that is brimming with history of a long career in sports. Pat seems undeterred by time as well as the raging pandemic. The sight of him training barefeet in his living room challenges all dominant narratives of age and servility.”
Nowhere Near
Alisa Martynova, Russia
More than one million immigrants from Africa officially reside in Italy, as well as an unknown number of undocumented migrants, many of whom have made a perilous and often life-threatening journey to get there. The photographer compares migrants in Italy to scattered stars, a constellation of young people from different countries, of different genders, and with different traits. They have all come to Italy for different personal reasons and are celebrated for their individual stories, in a way that tries to resist stereotyping of African migrants. A 2016 study by the International Organization of Migrants pointed to insecurity, conflict, and discrimination as the main drivers of migration, not solely economic and work reasons. Discrimination on the basis of social group, religion, or sexual orientation was mentioned by almost half of the study group. In October 2020, the Italian government adopted a decree overturning many of the anti-immigration policies introduced by the previous interior minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing Lega Nord (Northern League).
“This poetic series presents to us a ‘constellation of young people’ from different parts of Africa who currently live in Italy. It makes us meet each person at a moment apart from abject despondency stripped of dignity — which is how the African migrant story has been presented to us by mainstream media again and again. The photographer’s visual language and approach challenges these stereotypes and creates a less simplistic index of the migrant experience for us. We are invited to get to know each individual and this tells us more about how and why each of these young people have chosen to make a life and pursue aspirations, with intention and hope, away from ‘home’. It makes us re-examine these notions of home and world-making, the right to mobility, the right to choice.”
Taal Volcano Eruption
Ezra Acayan, Philippines
Taal volcano, in Batangas province, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, began erupting on 12 January 2020, spewing ash up to 14 kilometers into the air. The volcano generated ashfalls and volcanic thunderstorms, forcing evacuations from the surrounding area. The eruption progressed into a magmatic eruption, characterized by a lava fountain with thunder and lightning. According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, a total of 212,908 families, nearly 750,000 people, were affected by the eruption. Damage caused to infrastructure and livelihoods, such as farming, fishing and tourism, was put at around US$70 million. Taal volcano is in a large caldera filled by Taal Lake, and is one of the most active volcanoes in the country. It is a ‘complex volcano’, which means it doesn’t have one vent or cone but several eruption points that have changed over time. Taal has had 34 recorded historical eruptions in the past 450 years, most recently in 1977. As with other volcanoes in the Philippines, Taal is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of major seismic activity that has one of the world’s most active fault lines.
“This story is an evocative portrayal of one of the most primordial furies of nature. The photographer reaches Luzon island in the Philippines where the Taal volcano has erupted, and despite great risks, takes the time to make an incredibly haunting and composed set of images that juxtapose human life against the geophysical forces of nature.”
Reborn
Karolina Jonderko, Poland
‘Reborn’ babies first appeared in the 1990s. Each is unique, carefully crafted by artists known as ‘reborners’. The hyper-realistic reborn babies are created with such details as birthmarks, veins, implanted hair, pores, tears, and saliva. More sophisticated reborns are equipped with electronic systems capable of reproducing the heartbeat, breathing, and sucking of a real baby. Reborn babies are available whole and in kit form, and can be purchased online and at fairs. The process of buying a reborn can be done in such a way as to simulate adoption: dolls come with ‘adoption’ or ‘birth’ certificates. Reborn babies have been used in paediatric training to teach students practical childcare skills, and the use of the dolls in care homes has been shown to help reduce disruptive behaviour in people with dementia. While most reborn owners are doll collectors, others have experienced miscarriage, neonatal deaths, have no means for adoption, or suffer from empty nest syndrome, and may use the doll as a substitute for a child.
The photographer wished to explore the phenomenon of how artificial babies evoke genuine emotional response in adults. Each woman portrayed in this project has a personal motivation for having a reborn baby. Some who cannot have, or who have lost, a baby, give their love to an artificial one, looking after them, changing them, and buying them clothes. For some, the dolls are a means of dealing with loss or anxiety; for others they provide companionship.
“This story will stay with me because it portrays human life, our ailments of loneliness and our need for connection, family and love in such a visceral way. It raises questions about what is real and what is human and how we choose to find meaning in life — questions that are personal and universal in equal measure.”
The Human Cost of COVID-19
Joshua Irwandi, Indonesia
The body of a suspected coronavirus victim, wrapped in yellow infectious-waste plastic, lies awaiting a body bag, in a hospital in Indonesia, on 18 April 2020.
Nurses wound plastic around the body and sprayed it with disinfectant, in accordance with Indonesian government protocols. These protocols required COVID-19 victims to be wrapped in plastic and buried quickly to prevent the virus spreading. This meant grieving relatives were unable to follow Muslim funeral practices, which include personally washing the dead and wrapping the corpse in a seamless cloth. The World Health Organisation advised against the use of disinfectant and recommended wrapping bodies in cloth. The potential risk of transmission related to the handling of bodies of COVID-19 victims is considered low, provided that it is carried out by trained medical staff wearing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). Around the world, COVID-19 matters were aggravated by misinformation and inadequate reporting. For many, the lack of access to factual evidence and accurate science-based messages about the disease led to confusion, anxiety, and denial. When this image was published it sparked denial and strong reaction across social media. Many who saw it declared it to be a set-up intended to spread fear. By the end of the year, Indonesia had reported around 743,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 22,000 deaths.
“This photograph is representative of the utter tragedy, loss, isolation and grief that we have experienced around the world in 2020 due to COVID-19. To not be able to see loved ones and support them in their sickness, to not be able to say goodbye, not find closure through religious and cultural rituals, has been brutal for millions of families who lost loved ones to the pandemic around the world. Misinformation, fear and stigma added to the layers of challenges. This photograph presents an unfaltering and searing view of the brutality that was inflicted by COVID-19.”
Temple and Half-Mountain
Hkun Lat, Myanmar
A Buddhist temple occupies one half of a mountain, while the other has been carved away by heavy machinery mining for jade, in Hpakant, Kachin State, Myanmar, on 15 July 2020.
Hpakant is the site of the world’s biggest jade mine, and is the largest supplier of jadeite, the more valuable of the two forms of jade. Demand from China, where jade is a popular status symbol, fuels the industry. The National League for Democracy (NLD) government has made promises to tackle problems in the sector, but progress has been slow. Companies do not fulfill government requirements to undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to international standards, and officials allegedly lack the capacity to assess EIAs. Destruction of the environment by mining operations includes indiscriminate vegetation loss, degradation of farmland, and river sedimentation, and is mainly a result of inappropriate mining practices. At Hpakant sites, issues include illegally high heaps of mining waste, vast abandoned mining pits, and companies failing to stabilize deep excavations. Landslides are frequent, including a mudslide after heavy rainfall in July 2020 that killed at least 100 people.
“This photograph presents a stunning overview of what we, as the human race, have designated to be ‘rare and valuable’ and the sheer velocity with which we have ravaged and remoulded the earth for natural resources, money and power. It makes us question what we preserve and why. It paints a pretty bleak picture of what we are leaving behind for future generations.”
Yemen: Hunger, Another War Wound
Pablo Tosco, Argentina
Fatima and her son prepare a fishing net on a boat in Khor Omeira bay, Yemen, on 12 February.
Fatima has nine children. In order to provide for them, she makes a living off fishing. Although her village was devastated by armed conflict in Yemen, Fatima returned to resume her livelihood, buying a boat with money she earned from selling fish. The conflict — between Houthi Shia Muslim rebels and a Sunni Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia — dates from 2014, and has led to what UNICEF has termed the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Some 20.1 million people (almost two-thirds of the population) required food assistance at the beginning of 2020, with approximately 80 percent of the population relying on humanitarian aid. A Saudi coalition blockade on Yemen between 2015 and 2017 imposed import restrictions on food, medicines, and fuel. Resulting shortages exacerbated the humanitarian crisis. In many cases, conditions of near-famine were caused not so much by the unavailability of food, but because it became unaffordable, priced out of reach to most Yemenis by import restrictions, soaring transport costs due to fuel scarcity, a collapsing currency, and other man-made supply disruptions. In 2020 conflict intensified, and the situation was made worse by unprecedented heavy rainfall, which made some 300,000 people homeless, locust infestations that destroyed crops, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This photograph of Fatima and her son fishing will stay with me as a powerful image of agency and resilience.”
You can see all the 2021 Photo Contest and the 2021 Digital Storytelling Contest nominees at worldpressphoto.org/contest/2021.
Since 1955, the World Press Photo Contest rewards photographers for the best single exposure pictures contributing to the past year of visual journalism. Whether entered as singles or stories, these pictures are judged in terms of their accurate, fair, and visually compelling insights about our world.
The winners will be announced on 15 April during an award ceremony as part of the World Press Photo Festival 2021.
The winners of the World Press Photo of the Year and the World Press Photo Story of the Year awards receive €5,000 each. The prize-winning photographs are assembled into a worldwide year-long exhibition. The winning pictures are also published on World Press Photo’s website, across our social media platforms, and in our annual yearbook, which is available in multiple languages.
