Nepali London-based photographer, Susmita Rai, studied Fine Art Photography at Camberwell College Of Arts, 2021. Her work is deeply rooted in the themes of belonging, in-betweenness, and community. As a diaspora, she understands the complexities of navigating multiple identities and cultures. Her work reflects this understanding and seeks to explore the nuances of what it means to belong to a community while also existing in a state of in-betweenness.

She sees her work as a means of giving back to her community and uplifting those around her.

Through her work, she seeks to create a dialogue between herself and her Nepali tradition. Using photography as a way of exploring and celebrating the amalgamation of British and Nepali cultures that coexist within her.

‘Angalo’ (अंगालो) 2020 translating to 'embracing' in Nepali is an on-going series where she photographed females of the Nepali diaspora in the U.K. These series of work are dedicated to every other Nepali woman who encounters her pictures, in hopes that they find a third space, as it did for her when creating this work. A third space to celebrate the differences and similarities and the 'new ways of being' rather than a fixed notion of identity. As part of the Nepali diaspora we are always evolving and growing, the process of becoming and the effort to settle in the new land is a continuous process. We do not associate with just one culture and one unique culture is not more correct or authentic than a sum of them. The fine line of adaption, does it exist?

This work is a dialogue in between her and her traditions. It's her way of trying to find amalgamation. Through ‘Angalo’ (अंगालो) she makes a statement: we are here! It is not only about the exaltation of the both cultures, British and Nepali, that co-exist in her, but also a call for women to empower each other. 

From Me To You , 2022, I went to Nepal after 8 years, the second time since I moved to the UK in 2010. I wanted to represent Nepal from my lens and not the western gaze, challenging the Eurocentric perspective. I had the privilege of finishing my BA in 2021 and I wanted to use that privilege. Creating our narrative this time and dismantling the dominant stereotypical representation and portrayal of Nepal. Nepal is as ethnically diverse as its terrain and I wanted to show that. 

I realised my gaze turned more into nostalgia. I wanted to emphasise the colour of the sky, the humidity, the warmth of the sun, the dusty city, the greenery of the trees and the shivers from touching the cold rivers of the villages. It's the thing that carried me that day and I carry it in my memory today. Of how it is and has been. Home for me has changed over the years, the Nepal I grew up in is different to Nepal now. However, the thing that hasn't changed are the ambience, the people, the sun in a winter morning, the breezes in the heat, and the food. Memory lies, but the memory I carry in my heart of Nepal is true. Home after all is a place that exists in my imagination. That is what home was and is and became.

But what is my gaze anyways? In neither of them do I belong. When I reflect at this project, I ask myself..do I have the right to tell a story on their behalf? Will I ever feel like I belong somewhere?

I named this project “From Me To You” , this is what I can and want to offer you. Everything, all of my experiences, my questions, my doubts, my privileges. It's all been accumulated here and this is the result.