Jyoti Shrestha is a Nepal - India based visual artist and photographer whose work moves between documentary and experimental practices. She explores gender, language, identity, and collective memory, interrogating inherited traditions, cultural silences, and erasures. Through her lens, she traces the forces shaping bodies, desire, and belonging, reclaiming lost voices and revealing the interplay between personal histories and broader social, cultural, and environmental structures.
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Fellowships / Achievements
2018 - Introduction to Storytelling “PhotoCircle”
2020 - US Embassy Artist Grant - “Weaving Emotions”
2022 - British Council Grant - “Queer: In our own words” producing a zine
2022 - Jury's choice - Prix Virginia
2022 - 360 Impact Awards (Media 9 & business 360) - Enough is Enough Movement
2023 - Nepal Ambassador for 24 hour project (2023/24/25)
2024 - Resting Academy International Residency (Pathshala Institute)
2025 - PhotoCircle Fellowship PhotoKTM
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Exhibtions
2017 - Feminine side of a Boy (Kaalo 101)
2018 - Introduction to Storytelling Screening (PhotoCircle)
2018 - Women on the Wall (Micro Galleries Festival x Kaalo 101)
2019 - Nepal Communitere Group Show
2020 - Virtual Group Exhibtion - zine published (Kaalo 101)
2020 - Dignity without Danger zine publication (British Academy x Kaalo 101)
2021 - Public Exhibition “Self Potrait” (Kaalo 101)
2021 - 24HourProject (Finland & Germany)
2022 - “Queer : In our own words” Group Show (British Council)
2023 - 24HourProject (Hong Kong)
2025 - Phosphenes Group Show (Drik Gallery, Dhaka)
2025 - 24HourProject (Finland)
2025 - Synthetic Flow Group Show (Kathmandu)
2025 - South Asian Playground Group Show (Mool Delhi)
2025 - PhotoKTM Fellowship Exhibition (Nepal Art Council)
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Publications
1. Dignity without Danger x Kaalo.101: BREAKINGxTHExSILENCE 1.0 funded by the British Academy aims to
speak about menstrual health, hygiene, and products and focuses on Nepalese women and girls' rights
to menstrual dignity.
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2. SolidariTEa: Rethinking feminist leadership by UNGEI, a global partnership hosted by UNICEF, united by
a shared commitment to advancing gender equality in and through education.
3. Queer: In our own words by British Council Inclusion grant project led by Kaalo.101 brought together 12
Nepali queer storytellers to collaborate and tell stories in their own words.
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4. Invisible Spaces is a self-published zine featuring the visual interpretations of home during the Covid-19
lockdown by seven nepali photographers.
5. World Newah Organization, US Podcast featuring Jyoti Shrestha
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6. The Kathmandu Post article: Self-portraits that challenge social stereotypes
7. Photographer Jyoti Shrestha on her work challenging the criminalization of young people's sexuality by
YUWA, Nepal and CREA, India.
8. Lock-down portraiture by Jyoti Shrestha - She is the story by Voices of Women Media, Nepal.
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9. Imagine. Express. Disrupt. | Kaalo.101 exhibited works of 78 queer artists online and in public as part of
QUEER – a celebration of LGBTQIA+ arts and activism.
10. Guest Panelists as Expert Commentators for an artist show on Witch accusation in Nepal
11. Short Hair Photo Series featured in The Living Magazine, Kathmandu, Nepal's No.1 Lifestyle Magazine
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12. Dragmandu Photo Series featured in the Blue Diamond Society, pioneer organization working for the
LGBTIQ+ community in Nepal.
13. Cover Photographer for College Magazines at Kings College and St. Xavier’s college
14. Seventeen women photographers in Nepal by Bojubajai
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15. Photo Featured in This is Gender 50/50