// SEFA YAMAK · V.2026CANLI
SEFA YAMAK

05 · 2017 · Kathmandu, Nepal · 7 photographs

Untitled Portraits — Nepal

Seven portraits from Kathmandu — sadhus and painted holy men in the old city, made in 2017.

[ Series manifesto ]

Kathmandu was loud and close and full of faces that had decided long ago how they wanted to be seen. The painted holy men around the old temples let me work, mostly, and a few of them played with me, hiding behind a book or a pair of sunglasses. I took what they gave and did not push for more. The colour in these came from them, not from me.

[ Archive context ]

PlaceKathmandu, Nepal
Years2017
EditionEdition of 25, archival pigment on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm
ThemesHimalayan portraiture · Altitude · Stillness · Observation
Tone
Format
Portrait(6)
Black and white close portrait of a bearded man with pale tilaka markings on his forehead and hair tied in a knot — fine art portrait by Sefa Yamak, Nepal series.
Kathmandu, Nepal · Ed. of 25Ash and Light
A man with painted faces in his headdress holds an open exercise book in front of his face against a brick wall — fine art portrait by Sefa Yamak, Nepal series.
Kathmandu, Nepal · Ed. of 25Behind the Schoolbook
Color portrait of an elderly man in dark sunglasses, his face painted in stripes, wearing a crown of bright artificial flowers and beads — fine art portrait by Sefa Yamak, Nepal series.
Kathmandu, Nepal · Ed. of 25Sunglasses and Marigolds
Black and white profile of an elderly man with dotted and patterned face paint, a printed headcloth and a thin cigarette held between his lips — fine art portrait by Sefa Yamak, Nepal series.
Kathmandu, Nepal · Ed. of 25The Smoke Break
Close color portrait, framed at a tilt, of a man with an intricately painted face in orange, green and white, surrounded by artificial flowers and beads — fine art portrait by Sefa Yamak, Nepal series.
Kathmandu, Nepal · Ed. of 25Tilted World
Color portrait of a bearded man with an orange and white painted face wearing a tall headdress of painted deity faces and bells, against a brick wall — fine art portrait by Sefa Yamak, Nepal series.
Kathmandu, Nepal · Ed. of 25The Crown of Faces
Landscape(1)
Black and white photograph of an elderly person in a checked shirt, their clasped wrinkled hands held toward the camera and in sharp focus while the face behind softens — fine art portrait by Sefa Yamak, Nepal series.
Kathmandu, Nepal · Ed. of 25The Folded Hands

[ Read around this series ]

On light, and how little of it you needTwenty years in and I am still only photographing one thing. Not faces. Light, and what it does to a face when no one is arranging it.

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