Anna Pettigrew
The Youth of Kathmandu

Nepal is ranked 77th out of 90 developing countries with an average annual income of $220
Life Expectancy is only 58 years of age
Literacy is 66% for males and 38% for women
Only 15% of Nepalese have access to electricity

Kathmandu’s population consists of 1.3 million people.
25% of those figures are young people aged between 15-24. A large percent of these young people have moved on their own from rural Nepal, into the city for work or education.

It is also believed that the true figures of how many youths are living and supporting themselves has vastly increased during the last 10 years – due to the Maoist insurgents in rural Nepal. The threat to their lives and lack of sustainable income in the villages has seen many young people move to Kathmandu in search of a better existence.

Nepal’s borders have only been open to foreigners for the last 50 years. And rural Nepal still remains mostly intact of foreign involvement. This in return allows the contrast between city and countryside to be vast. However Nepal’s teenagers and young adults are like most other youth groups around the world. Their interests lie in fashion, films, music and trends. The main difference is however, that they have to work a lot harder to obtain them.

My recent time spent in Nepal was dedicated to shooting portraits of the youth of Kathmandu. Nepali society is still dictated strongly by a caste system that has been in place for 100’s of years. So whilst undergoing this documentary, the decision to shoot the portraits against non distinct walls was done as I felt it might neutralise the weight of the hierarchal structure. Using Kathmandu’s walls as a backdrop the young people were taken out of any social/economical context, leaving the youths with only them selves as their representative.

Anna is a Scottish/Danish photographer currently based in Edinburgh.
She has exhibited in various places including the Atlantis Gallery, Brick Lane, London. She has also been published a number of times, one of which was in "Poet Prints" a collection of portraits of Scottish poets. She has recently returned from a trip to Nepal, where she volunteered as a photographer for an ngo, The Mountain Fund. She is currently working in Edinburgh, and trying to “push” the photography further!


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