Butter Lamp(2013)

Butter Lamp follows a young itinerant photographer and his assistant as they travel through Tibet, offering nomadic communities the chance to be photographed against carefully chosen backdrops. The film captures the encounter between the photographer's artistic vision and the daily lives of the people he meets. As he documents their portraits, tensions emerge between his desire to capture authentic moments and the staged nature of his work. Set against the vast Tibetan landscape, Butter Lamp explores themes of cultural representation, artistic intent, and the relationship between observer and subject. The film presents a quiet, observational portrait of this unusual exchange, revealing how photography can both connect and distance us from the people we seek to capture.