Never just an empty ground, public spaces are theatres brought to life by the bodies inhabiting them. These spaces are not merely designed, they are performed into being. And photography, as a medium with its capacity to pause and frame the fleeting moment, becomes a vital witness to these lived choreographies.
With the goal to witness these live choreographies, "Cities 4 Women: Inclusive and Climate Resilient Urbanization in Nepal" project organized the "Cities 4 Women" photo competition.
The Cities 4 Women project, led by the Ministry of Urban Development and funded by the European Union and the Government of Finland, currently collaborates with seven municipalities in Nepal to deliver practical, integrated solutions. UNOPS, UN-Habitat, and Cities Alliance implement the project, which addresses critical urban challenges through a gender-transformative lens.
The competition was open to photographers from across South Asia to look closely at the spaces where a city breathes: its riverbanks and streets, markets and squares, edges and thresholds.
By the end, the project received 42 images from 21 professional and novice photographers. The photos offered a revealing cross-section of how shared space is used, claimed, negotiated, and loved. Together, the pictures make a simple argument: public space matters most when it is shaped by us.
In one striking image, two women sit under the high-altitude sun near Syangboche Airport, spinning wool. Trekkers and tourists do not appear in the frame, yet it is through the photographer's gaze that we sense their passage, moving on their way to Everest. With no pavement or signboard, and a makeshift stall built from boxes, the women have together created a public space: a workplace, a meeting point, and a window onto the rest of the world.
As photographer Astha Banstola observed, "Watching them reminded me how public spaces don't need to be built; they grow around people. And in many places, it's women who keep them alive." Her reflection echoes throughout this collection, unveiling the subtle yet powerful ways in which people, through their presence, tell a larger story of a place across time.
Often praised for its capacity to freeze time, photography's deeper power perhaps lies in showing time in motion by holding a choreography long enough for us to examine.
The stories in motion unfold everywhere, from a shopfront step in Patan taken over by women for a chat, to children turning a Kathmandu alley into a lively carom board. Likewise, they extend beyond the capital-from vendors in Dhankuta sustaining their livelihoods at a weekly market to mothers exchanging memories at the Tatopani hot springs. This narrative stretches across the region as well, with Sunday cricket games that close lanes in Mumbai, millions of pilgrims circling the Golden Temple's sacred waters in Amritsar, and roses being sold outside Gurugram's glass towers.
These images prove that public spaces are not static; they are fluid, improvised and profoundly human, offering sites not only for commerce and ritual, but also for rest, play, gossip, and resilience. And photographing these microcosms is itself an act of attention and care, a way of noticing the small gestures that give life to a place.
Photography has always been a way of noticing and paying attention. As Susan Sontag wrote, "It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge-and, therefore, like power." (On Photography, 1977) In public space, this act of attention becomes more than aesthetic; it is also political.
More than just a way to document life, photography is about noticing a moment. And when you frame that moment, you affirm its existence and value. Just by simply capturing, you allow fleeting gestures and forgotten corners of our cities to have recognition and permanence.
Luckily, in today's world, this act of recognition is no longer limited to professionals. The spread of the mobile phone has made photography radically democratic. Almost everyone now carries a device capable of documenting, archiving, and sharing the spaces they inhabit. Thus, public space is increasingly seen through collective eyes, layered with countless framings, each one a small claim that THIS MATTERS, THIS HAPPENED HERE, THIS BELONGS TO US.
I am humbled and grateful to have glimpsed these vital places. Being on the other side of the world, in Europe, such occasions are rare, and even through a screen, one can feel part of them. I am especially heartened to see how many images in this collection highlight the central role of women in keeping public spaces alive.
One of the clearest articulations of this principle in South Asian thought comes from Indian feminist scholar Shilpa Phadke, who, in her book Why Loiter? Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets (co-authored with Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade, 2011), observes that women's presence in the city is not merely about necessity or labor, but about freedom, pleasure, and the right to belong.
Phadke and her co-authors argue that women's presence in public should not always have to be defended as "productive." They also have the right to loiter, aimlessly, joyfully, and unhurried.
As jurors, our role extended beyond selecting the most striking photographs. We sought to highlight images that visibilize and include citymakers and their everyday practice that shapes public life. During which, Phadke's insight becomes a curatorial method: women in unscripted ease, offering a glimpse into their inherent right to exist.
Shreeya Singh's photograph of 'Nepali amas' in Tatopani is a powerful example. And images as such are profound political acts that expand freedom for everyone.
