[Leica] Ramblings from Kathmandu - may or may not be on topic

[Ian Stanley <ian@mos.com.np>]

Greetings all,

	My darkroom has been disassembled and packed, our car and other goods sold
and the packers will be coming sometime next week to get everything ready
for shipment to Bangkok.  It has been a hectic time of sorting and purging
- - an exercise that should be done regularly in any house.  It is amazing
what we have accumulated in our six years plus in Nepal.

	This has also been a good time to cruise for snaps as well with Ilford XP2
Super in the M's as I am out of TRI-X and chemicals.  This way I am not
spending my time processing so have more time to devote to getting out and
photographing.  I also find that I am looking at things in a different way
and photographing more when I wander around as I know that it will not be
as easy for me to get back as it is now.  It is also like seeing the place
for the first time and I see things that I have missed over the years here.  

	I usually get nostalgic just before we leave somewhere and remember all of
the good things but Kathmandu and Nepal is changing rapidly and not all of
the changes are for the good.  There is a lot of political turmoil going on
(this probably doesn't hit the news outside), there are bombs going off in
Kathmandu, seven police were shot and killed in an ambush the other day, an
increasingly common occurrence, and during a strike on Friday my son's
school bus had a police escort.  The times are a changing.  Nepal and
Kathmandu is still probably safer than any North American or European city
but it is not paradise.

	Anyway, I will have to sign off the list and pack up the computer in the
next while.  As I don't know exactly when that will be I thought I would
say goodbye for now until I get hooked up again in Bangkok.

	Now a photography related question.  As I was packing I naturally spent
time looking through my photo books and again found myself intrigued and
very impressed with the work of a Swiss photographer Peter Gasser.  The
book is called Peter Gasser Photographs 1977 - 1992 and is full of some of
the most esthetically pleasing and technically superb black and white
prints that I have ever seen.  What is troubling me though is that I have
not been able to find out anything about this man in spite of many internet
searches.  Does anyone have any information on this man???  Thanks in advance.

	Anyway, enjoy your Leicas and get out there with them instead of spending
so much time on the computer.  Take care.

Ian Stanley

Kathmandu, Nepal