In October and November 2023, I went to Nepal with FreeW, a motorcycle-based charity. Two of our guides were local women who developed their riding skills with FreeW’s support. We covered over 1,000 km, travelling through the plains and mountains of Nepal. Along the way, we met local women riders, rural women, and ethnic minorities.
The money we raised helps to fund a motorcycle riding school for women in Kathmandu, and we delivered school supplies to kids of single mothers in a village in southern Nepal. Other trips had delivered reusable menstrual products. Each trip, including ours, brings meaningful support to the women of Nepal.
Before the start of the trip I spent a few days with Shashi Bikram Shah, a Nepalese artist whose work was just acquired by Tate Gallery in London. I was there to document his studio and his work. He and his family were very generous with me, we shared meals and I was honour to meet his extended family.
The photos below—either I took them, or I’m in them. Enjoy.
Me, photographing Shashi Bikram Shah
In his studio
My first lunch on my first day in Kathmandu
Sadhus at the cremation ground
Hijra at the cremation grounds
Meeting the Dui Pangre Queens
The view from my seat
Resting on the first day
Handing out school supplies
Cooking lunch in an ethnic minority village
Ruins, on the road
Yac Donald's
Entering the national park
Wearing lipstick to pass the time waiting for a landslide to be cleared
Harvesting rice
Our host, first night on the road
End of a long day
Homecooked dinner over the fire
Petrol stop
Cooking lunch
Muktinath
The aftermath of a flood, Kagbeni
Ready to go
Creative locks
The last morning on the road
Kathmandu
A drinker
How many people does it take to fix a flat?
