PhotoKTM, Nepal’s prominent international photography festival, has unveiled its sixth edition on November 14 at Patan Museum, marking a decade of uncensored visual storytelling across the Kathmandu Valley ongoing till December 14, 2025.
The month-long event includes 18 exhibitions, slideshow projections, workshops, artist talks, panel discussions, portfolio reviews, and film screenings. The screening is being held across multiple venues including Nepal Art Council, Mangahiti and Chyasal in Patan, Nandi Keshar Bagaincha in Naxal, Tribhuvan University in Kirtipur, and Nigu Pukhu in Madhyapur Thimi.
The curatorial theme is Global South Solidarities, drawing inspiration from the 1955 Bandung Conference on its 70th anniversary. The program spotlights over 40 artists from across the Global South—ranging from Santiago to Lubumbashi and Quito to Dakar, alongside Nepali photographers and filmmakers. The edition also highlights eight emerging Nepali artists from the 2025 photo.circle fellowship cohort, whose work probe ideas of development, progress, and their tensions in contemporary Nepal.
While the program signals an ambitious expansion of artistic dialogue, the path to this edition has been challenging. Organizers faced what they describe as the festival’s most severe funding crisis to date. Several long-time partners withdrew citing political instability, while others raised objections to the festival’s use of the word “resistance” or urged the team to remain “apolitical.” One donor attempted to impose restrictions that organizers deemed censorial.
In response, PhotoKTM launched a public fundraising campaign earlier this month to keep the festival free and independent. More than 150 supporters from around the world have contributed so far—an affirmation the organizers say has been both practical and symbolic as they mark ten years of the festival’s work.
Despite the hurdles, preparations for PhotoKTM6 are in full motion. Exhibitions are being fabricated and installed, workshops have begun, and artists from across the Global South are arriving ahead of the opening weekend.
The sixth edition of PhotoKTM is supported by the Shikshya Foundation Nepal, the Embassy of Switzerland in Nepal, and independent nonprofit organisations FreeMuse and Cultural Workers Solidarity Front.
