Kathmandu Street Style

With a backdrop of prayer flags and pagodas crowned by Himalayan peaks, Kathmandu is a crossroads of both faith and fashion. Styles from Bombay to Lhasa debut on a stage that’s been bustling for millennia. Block by block, you’ll see monks and punks, yogis and breakdancers, sadhus and biker gangs, all brushing shoulders and chatting in a potpourri of languages. Above it all stand the temple bodhisattvas and protector demons in naked stone. They oversee the pageantry of samsara as they always have, frozen in eternity.

I shot this series in 2012. It took on a new poignancy when in 2015, the Gorkha earthquake leveled many of the temples and buildings in these photographs.