KATHMANDU, SEP 05 -
At a time when her friends were busy playing with dolls, Subeksha Shrestha had recognised the viewfinder in her father’s camera. This penchant of hers earned the 14-year-old the appellation of  ‘Little Photographer’.

Born in April, 1996, Subeksha has developed some 3,000 pictures clicked with different cameras. At the age of seven, she captured an eminent personality for the first time when then Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa participated in a marriage ceremony in her neighbourhood. Ever since, Subeksha honed her photography skills and ultimately did the nation proud with her extraordinary talent.

In the past seven years, she has captured moments of the Jana Andolan of 2006, the President’s oath taking ceremony, former Royal Family’s

departure from the Narayanhiti Palace, five prime ministers in office and Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala’s wedding in July, among others, in still and motion pictures.

“Surya Bahadur Thapa, Sher Bahadur Deuba, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal, including many other popular figures, are

ready to pose for me on all political and public occasions,” she said. “They have always admired my job and observed it curiously, calling me the little photographer.”

“My father, at one time, was appointed an official photographer of the then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. To take Koirala’s photos in Baluwatar, he was adjusting the lights. I was standing by with a camera ready to shoot. Suddenly, Girija Babu appeared and said he had only five minutes for the session. I clicked and clicked until Girija Babu asked me how many snaps I had taken. I whispered 86. What a coincidence it was! It was his 86th birthday, he said smiling,” she shared about her time with the late five-time head of the government.

Though the child of someone who has been a photographer for 22 years, Subeksha has not been trained in the profession. “I have not even taught her to handle the camera,” said Rajendra Shrestha. “Whatever she has learnt is the result of her own dedication.”

This skill, she has not acquired at the cost of her study. “She has never absented herself from class. She has a good academic record,” said her father, who is also the official photographer of St. Mary’s School in Lalitpur. Subeksha is a 10th-grader at the school. Socially sensible, the little photographer has captured the disregard of people to martyrs’ statues during protests or processions.

She sometimes partners with her father in the profession. They contracted the photography job of actress Manisha’s wedding for Rs. 300,000. “We shared Rs. 150,000 each for our equal efforts,” said Shrestha.

Subeksha is organising a solo exhibition of her exhibits from 14-17 September, which will be inaugurated by caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.

Last August, Shrestha started

the process of registering his daughter as a Guinness World Record holder as

a seven-year-old female photographer. “We have completed 80 percent

of the documentation for the registration,” he said.

 


Posted on: 2010-09-06 07:38

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