Land, Development and Change: Amit Machamasi’s Not The Same Anymore
Amit Machamasi stumbled into photography. Working as a cameraperson at a local TV station in Nepal around 2018, he would often see and meet many photojournalists while out in the field for work. “I thought—I will also buy a camera and go around taking pictures and be like them,” he shares. On 8 March 2020, he officially entered the world of photojournalism after being hired by a local news portal. Machamasi was selected for Photo Circle’s International Storytelling Workshop in 2023, which proved to be a turning point for his artistic career. Already known by local and national photojournalists for his creative approach, the workshop introduced him to the art of visual storytelling. Not The Same Anymore (2023) materialised during the one month of fieldwork as part of the workshop.
Born and raised in Sipadol, on the outskirts of Bhaktapur (one of the three cities that make up the Kathmandu Valley), Machamasi had begun to notice the changes around the land he grew up in. Coming from an agricultural family, he knew the value of fertile land from first-hand experience. Over the years, the agricultural land around his birthplace began transforming—from a place covered with greens and crops, the land was quickly becoming a material source for brick factories and brick kilns. The conversion was so rapid that Bhaktapur is now also being called “Bhattapur” (Bhatta means “brick kilns” in the Nepali language). Other changes happening to fertile land around Sipadol include the transfer of fertile land to plotting areas for building settlement houses. Many locals, who own land around Sipadol, live in the main Bazaar area of Bhaktapur. Unable to till their land for agriculture, they end up either giving their land for plotting or sourcing materials for brick kilns. “Our family land will probably last for two–three more years, and likely after that it will also be consumed by plotting,” he adds.
Not The Same Anymore documents the shape-shifting nature of the land around Machamasi’s home. The artist notes, “When I saw these changes around me, I began wondering what development was. Is this what they call development—the expansion of roads, the building of houses?” With striking subjects, unique framing techniques and a creative play of camera settings, his work adds to the conversation around the questioning of land, development and change. The series explores the intertwining of human stories with the environment by featuring subjects who work in brick kilns, most of whom come from rural parts of Nepal and have moved into the Valley to find work and economic progress. Inanimate objects also find a special storytelling moment in Machamasi’s photographs.
To learn more about artists working to document the lives around brick kilns, read Kamayani Sharma’s reflections on Megha Acharya’s film Meelon Dur (2023) and Ankan Kazi’s conversation with Ahmed Rasel on his series Nocturne.
All images from Not The Same Anymore (2023) by Amit Machamasi. Images courtesy of the artist.
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