UNITED STATES, May 31, 2011: (by Lavina Melwani in her blog) Thomas L. Kelly, an American from Santa Fe, New Mexico, was only 21 when he first visited Nepal as a US Peace Corps volunteer. This two year stint has coalesced into a lifelong sojourn where Kelly, now 54, has dedicated his life to chronicling the hidden beauty and disappearing cultures of South Asia, through his camera.
A photo-activist, he has raised consciousness about the plight of marginalized people and ostracized communities, not through words but through his stunning images. Many of these journeys into little known lives have been in collaboration with major social organizations including UNICEF, Save the Children Fund, and the Aga Khan Foundation.
Kelly is not only a photo activist but also a photo artist who through the lens of his camera captures the ethereal beauty of remote landscapes and the inner beauty of ordinary people. These editorial images have appeared in major international publications including The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Smithsonian, Le Figaro, and Paris Stern, and also in a treasure trove of coffee table books.
Yet all these achievements were unknown and in the future, when 21-year-old Tom landed in Kathmandu, and embraced an alien culture, learning Nepali and getting his bearings. “Once you have the language under your belt you know how to access cultures, or at least be able to listen,” he muses. “Out in the mountains, away from distractions of choice, you learn very quickly to take on what you have! I quickly began to love it.” He now loves eating with his hands, and appreciates the Nepali habit of not having to converse over supper and concentrating on the food!
As a young Peace Corps worker, on his occasional forays into Kathmandu, he decided to travel to Pashupatinath which has many temples and write about the remarkable sadhus. He met his wife of 25 years, Carroll Dunham, a Princeton University anthropologist, writer and documentary film maker, at this time.
Once his two year stint with the Peace Corps was over, Kelly had no intention of leaving the country to which he had become so emotionally attached. He started working with development agencies to document and analyze the success of the projects once the funding agencies had left.
Over the years Kelly also acquired a working knowledge of Mongolian and Hindi and spent the next three decades enmeshed in the culture of Nepal and South Asia, spending the summers in Mongolia and traveling to remote places.
While there’s a whole tradition of armchair travelers who have seen these far-off places and people through Kelly’s photography books and videos, he wants everyone to see them in the flesh and blood, to experience them in real life. Knowing the reluctance of people to travel to unknown places, Kelly and his family offer tours from Mongolia to Nepal. You can get more details at www.wildearthjourneys.com . Many of these are in conjunction with National Geographic. They take you on pilgrimages and retreats through this fascinating terrain.
[HPI note: Thomas Kelly, a frequent contributor of Hinduism Today magazine, was Hindu Photographer of the Year 2008.]