International Projects
Nepal, Around the Annapurna Range
In the fall of 1981 I joined a small group of six friends from Idaho and California who were intent on trekking around the Annapurna range in Nepal. It was my first trip to Asia and unlike anyplace I’d been before. I was encouraged to go by my friend Linda Connor who had made many photographs there and her work greatly inspired me.
We traveled on foot in the tradition of using Sherpa guides and Nepalese porters to transport the bulk of our gear as we hiked with day packs, and in my case a 4x5 camera and Polaroid film. The route went from the Marsyangdi River Valley across Thorong La pass at elevation 17,700,’ and down the Kali Gandaki River Valley to Pokhara. The trip lasted about a month.
I had recently finished working on the Rephotographic Survey Project when this trip took place, and it was easy for me to imagine parallels with the expeditionary experience of 19th century Western photographers who visited a place that also seemed, to them, exotic. It brought home the colonial histories of both places, and the role of being an observer. In retrospect, the trip set me up to rethink the Western American landscape I would begin to photograph less than six months later when I moved to Arizona.
Linda Connor and I later produced a Nepal Portfolio in 1984 that combined both of our works.
First photograph in Nepal: curious children Temple, Kathmandu (10/12/81)
Gurus disciple: hashish smoker Pashupatinath Tempe, Kathmandu, Nepal (10/12/81)
Mid-morning view: Bishnumati River Kathmandu (10/13/81)
Bamboo swing, Kathmandu (10/13/81)
Smoldering ashes, remains of a funeral fire: burning ghat at Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu (10/13/81)
Hindus bathing Bagnati River, Pashupatinath Tempe, Kathmandu (10/14/81)
Crippled boy entrance to Budha Stupa, Kathmandu (10/14/81)
Woman stacking corn husks below Boudha Stupas, Buddhist Temple Kathmandu, Nepal (10/14/81)
Evening tea before Mt Manaslu: first camp Chambas, Nepal (10/15/81)
Spider Mt Manaslu early evening, Sundarbazar, Nepal (10/16/81)
Drying tents Stan practicing yoga, near Turture, Nepal (10/16/81)
Swaying bamboo: schoolyard camp Bahundanda, Nepal (10/18/81)
Twin trees high above rice terraces, valley of the Marsyangdi River, Nepal (10/18/81)
Schoolyard hoop: 3 days walk from Dumre Bahundanda, Nepal (10/18/81)
Sherpas preparing lunch near the bridge at Bhupustun, Nepal (10/19/81)
Prayer stones and wall, Pisang Village, Nepal (10/22/81)
View across the Marsyangdi of Pisang Village and distant glacial bowl, Nepal (10/22/81)
A view of the Annapurnas: Gangapurna, Glacier Dome and ice fall from a Manang rooftop, Nepal. (10/23/81)
Light falling on the Budha Temple, Manang Nepal (Dye Transfer print) (10/23/81)
Braga hillside village in the Manang valley, Nepal elevation 12,000’ (10/23/81)
Last light across Annapurna Range, north towards Manang and Roc Noir Braga, Nepal (10/23/81)
Sherpas having tea, Thorung Pass trail Gangapurna and Glacier Dome: Annapurna Range, Nepal (10/24/81)
Hindu pilgrims cooking rice, drying saris, before the Dhaulagiri Himal at Muktinath, Nepal (10/27/81)
Ang and Gyalzen Sherpa guides, Muktinath Nepal (10/27/81)
Making sausages, valley of the Kali Gandaki River, north of Jomsom, Nepal (10/28/81)
Rest day refreshments, with flies Marpha, Nepal (10/29/81)
Pornographic graffiti, abandoned house, old Marpha, Nepal (10/29/81)
Prayer carvings on a displaced boulder near Marpha, Nepal (10/30/81)
Pam reading amidst vegetables drying, hotel terrace at Tukuchi, Nepal (10/30/81)
How the photographic equipment was carried across the Himalayas (10/31/81)
Sunbathing at Tatopani on the Kali Gandaki River: Niligiri beyond Nepal (11/2/81)
Village water tap Shikha, Nepal (11/3/81)
Tsering sherpa cook, and Ishi his Tibetan friend and assistant Ghorapani, Nepal (11/4/81)
Camping in dried rice terraces, valley of the Bhurungdi R. near Tikhe Dunga, Nepal (11/5/81)
View from hotel courtyard. Birethanti, Nepal (11/6/81)
Pam brushing her teeth, our camp at Pokhara Nepal (11/8/81)
Ang Futi Sherpa, Pokhara (11/8/81)
Small stupas, prayer flags, drying grain Tempe, Kathmandu (11/10/81)
Children washing goat intestines: Temple of the Living Goddess, Kathmandu (11/12/81)