Kevin Bubriski (born 1954) is an American

documentary photographer Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life. It is typically undertaken as professional pho ...

Life and career

Bubriski was born in North Adams, Massachusetts. He attended

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

Brunswick, Maine Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 21,756 at the 2020 United States Census. Part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area, Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin Intern ...

, graduating in 1975. He worked as a photographer for nine years in Nepal and has also photographed trips to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

, and within the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Bubriski lives in

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

with his wife. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, and the

Asian Cultural Council The Asian Cultural Council (ACC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing international cultural exchange between Asia and the U.S. and between the countries of Asia through the arts. Founded by John D. Rockefeller III in 1963, AC ...

. Kevin Bubriski has exhibited worldwide; his work can be found in the permanent collections of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, The

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, and the

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...

, all in New York, as well as the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, the

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

, the

Center for Creative Photography The Center for Creative Photography (CCP), established in 1975 and located on the University of Arizona's Tucson campus, is a research facility and archival repository containing the full archives of over sixty of the most famous American pho ...

in Tucson and the

Bibliothèque Nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

in Paris. Kevin Bubriski's book, ''Portrait of Nepal,'' won the Golden Light Documentary Award in 1993 and his work has been featured in several publications, including the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

and the

LA Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

. In 2002, his work was included in a group exhibition about September 11 at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

. Bubriski was a recipient of the 2004

Hasselblad Masters Award Hasselblad Masters Award is an bi-annual award granted by the camera company Hasselblad to selected photographers each year across various specialties in recognition of exceptional accomplishment through photography. While its sister prize, the Has ...

. Bubriski was awarded the 2010-2011 Robert Gardner Visiting Artist Fellowship in Photography. An exhibit of Bubriski's work, entitle
Shadows of Shangri La: Nepal in Photographs
" was on display in Cambridge, Massachusetts from May to September 2014. The show was sponsored by

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, with ...

and the university's Asia Studies Center. Together the exhibit and its accompanying publication, ''Nepal: 1975–2011,'' "document the dramatic evolution of daily life in Nepal, from its years as a Hindu kingdom to what ubriskicalls 'the current precarious peace'." Over 2016-17, Bubriski was on a Senior Scholar Fulbright Fellowship in Nepal, where he conducted fine art photography in some of the remotest regions of Nepal and Tibet (China).

Reception

Bubriski's exhibition "Shadows of Shangri La: Nepal in Photographs" and his book ''Nepal: 1975–2011'' have been featured in the

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

Nepali Times ''Nepali Times'' (stylized as NEPALI Times) is an English weekly newspaper that provides reporting and commentary on Nepali politics, business, culture, travel and society in 16 pages. The weekly is aimed at the expatriate, diplomatic and busines ...

, ECS Nepal,

Kathmandu Post ''The Kathmandu Post'' is a major daily newspaper published in Nepal. Founded in February 1993 by Shyam Goenka, it is one of the largest English-language newspapers in the country. The newspaper is independently owned and published by Kantipur ...

, ''

Asian Ethnology ''Asian Ethnology'' is an open access, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the promotion of research on the peoples and cultures of Asia. It was first published in 1942 at the Catholic University of Peking as ''Folklore Studies'' and subsequently ...

'', Art New England, and

Harvard Magazine ''Harvard Magazine'' is an independently edited magazine and separately incorporated affiliate of Harvard University. Aside from ''The Harvard Crimson'', it is the only publication covering the entire university, and also regularly distributed ...

. In his review for ''Asian Ethnology'' Niels Gutschow of

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

was able to "value Bubriski's work as a unique testimony that destroys any reproaches" for "Bubriski does not present clichés and he does not indulge the colonial gaze that tends to isolate the exotic." Bret Chenkin of Art New England critiques that "the earliest works appear stronger—have more visual dynamism and authenticity." Yet Chenkin appreciates the accessibility of the later images, explaining that "they bring a viewer sitting half the world away that much closer. Anyone who reads Bubriski's photographic journal will be satiated visually, artistically and culturally."

Mark Feeney Mark Feeney (born July 28, 1957) is an author and arts writer for ''The Boston Globe'' for over four decades. He is the author of two books, ''Nixon at the Movies'' (2004) and ''Nixon and the Silver Screen'' (2012). Feeney is a native of Cambrid ...

of the Boston Globe writes: "Bubriski's images convey a sense of Nepal that feels strong, full, and nuanced. His book, ''Legacy in Stone: Syria Before War'' was featured in

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

, Roads and Kingdoms, and on public radio stations

WBUR WBUR-FM (90.9 FM) is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Boston University. It is the largest of three NPR member stations in Boston, along with WGBH and WUMB-FM and produces several nationally distributed program ...

and

VPR Vpr is a Human immunodeficiency virus gene and protein product. Vpr stands for "Viral Protein R". Vpr, a 96 amino acid 14-kDa protein, plays an important role in regulating nuclear import of the HIV-1 pre-integration complex, and is required for ...

. ''Our Voices, Our Streets: American Protests 2001-2011'' was also featured in The New York Review of Books, and in

the Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

Published works

*''Portrait of Nepal'' (Chronicle Books, 1993) *''Power Places of Kathmandu'' (Inner Traditions, 1995) *''Pilgrimage: Looking at Ground Zero'' (Powerhouse Books, 2002) *''Michael Rockefeller: New Guinea Photographs, 1961'' (Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 2007) *''Maobadi'' (Himal Books, 2011) *''Nepal: 1975–2011'' (Radius Books & Peabody Museum, 2013) *''Look into My Eyes: Nuevomexicanos por Vida, '81-'83'' (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2016) *''Kailash Yatra: a Long Walk to Mount Kailash through Humla,'' co-author Abhimanyu Pandey (Penguin, 2018) *''Mustang in Black and White'', co-autho
Sienna Craig
(Vajra Books, 2018) *''Legacy in Stone: Syria Before War'' (Powerhouse Books, 2019) *''Our Voices, Our Streets: American Protests 2001-2011'', Forward: Lucy McKeon, Afterward: Howard Zinn (Powerhouse Books, 2020) *''Nepal Earthquake''. Foreword:

Manjushree Thapa Manjushree Thapa (born 1968 in Kathmandu) is a Nepalese–born Canadian essayist, fiction writer, translator and editor. She is one of the first English writer of Nepali descent to be published internationally. '' Forget Kathmandu'' and '' The Tu ...

(Himal Books, 2022)

References

External links

*http://www.kevinbubriski.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Bubriski, Kevin 1954 births Asian Cultural Council grantees Bowdoin College alumni Living people Documentary photographers Photographers from Massachusetts People from North Adams, Massachusetts 20th-century American photographers 21st-century American photographers