About me: 

Nishal Lama is a former journalist turned photographer and filmmaker. Apart from working as a photojournalist, he has deep interest in pursuing long term documentary photo and multimedia projects centred around places and people he shares his proximity with. His documentary work looks into marginalized communities, internal displacement, social inequality, human rights violations, and identity crises. 

Having born in the ’80s and raised in the North-East part of India, which is the easternmost region of the Country sharing more than 5000 kilometres of international border with countries like China, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan and Nepal, North-East India — exotic and culturally diverse — had remained hidden from rest of the mainland India for long. 

He has experienced the turbulent phase of the region and till recently most of the news that trickled out of media was of kidnapping, extortion, bombings, ambushes etc. What remains hidden is the story of the beautiful land with beautiful people, very innocent, timid and vulnerable, and eager to be heard just as any Indian would. 

Originally born and brought up in the Northeast part of India, he presently juggles between Siliguri in West Bengal and the Southern City of Bangalore where he has lived for close to 15 years. 

Education: 

Masters in Audio Visual Communication from Commits, India 

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in 2018

Attended Photographic Storyteller Course:  Ten week immersive course with Sebastian Liste on different aspects of visual storytelling 

Workshop on working in your backyard with John Lowwenstein 

Workshop on Creative Practice for Visual Storytellers with Heba Khamis & Sebastian Liste 

Workshop on working in Challenging Environments with Olga Kravets 

Workshop on the Visual Narrative for Storytellers with Francesco Zizola 

Workshop on developing a Long Term Project with Kadir van Lohuizen 

Alumnus of Noor Photo Collective, a monthly training, mentorship, and community for photographers and storytellers 

Attended online editing sessions organised by Noor Photos