Gyanendra Das Shrestha, one of Nepal's pioneering photographers, was born in 1955 to a family of photographers; his grandfather had established the Das Studio in Darjeeling in 1927 and his father, late Dwaria Das Shrestha, had helped pioneer the photo and postcard industry in Nepal in the late 50s and early 60s. He got into photography in 1973, and at age 21, in 1976, Gyanendra won the The Koishikawa Rotary Prize at the annual international photo contest organized in Japan by the Asia/Pacific Culture Center for UNESCO (ACCU). In 1978 he won the ACCU Prize itself. He won the contest in 1977 too, but under a different name. He has never taken part in a competition since. His works have also been extensively used by Nepal Tourism Board and the travel-tourism industry in general on countless promotion campaigns.
In the early 80s he took over the family business in Nepal and by the 1990s established a franchise of as many as 14 Das Photo Studios in and outside Kathamndu. He also spent those decades relentlessly shooting landscapes and portraits across the country, often publishign them as postcards, posters and calendars. The studio and its products and services not only dominated the industry but also influenced it.
A faithful Nikon, Hasselblad and Leica user, he has been experimenting with Digital SLRs (Nikon and Canon) since 2007. His presentation at Photo.Circle were some of the earliest photos he had shot using a DSLR.
