Broken Rules speaks of the power of women in Nepal. Every woman in the project is the first woman to have broken a particular set of rules in Nepal. They are representatives of change.

During my time in Kathmandu I often heard stories of discrimination against women. I wanted to work on the issue of violence and discrimination against women by focusing on a group of women working in different fields who fight for their rights within a highly conservative society.

My inspiration to use handmade backdrops came from seeing old photographs that I often found in people’s homes. These photographs were always placed in special corners of the house, and usually the people photographed wore traditional clothes and displayed very serious expressions. I decided to reverse that common form of portraiture, allowing each woman to represent herself, thereby opening a visual debate on what being a woman means in a changing society like Nepal. The series was shot in a studio setting and I enjoyed the creative challenge of taking photos of people in a restricted frame: using traditional handmade backdrops forced me and the women to explore new ways of portraiture. The photographs include short statements by each woman to highlight their work and carry messages of inspiration, frustration or change. I hope my series will bring attention to the actions that different women take to stop the various forms of violence against women in Nepal.