Behind the scenes of our 2022 Harvest appeal

The Nepali village of Ghusel is beautiful – both as it appears in the Good Land feature film that tells the hopes and dreams of the villagers who live there (shot on location by a Nepali team), and in the photos that accompany it. But behind these beautiful images is a real community of people – people whose lives have carried on even now the cameras have left. Meeting those people made a lasting impression on Clive Thomas, the photographer who shot all the images for the appeal. We asked him to share some of the photos that best represent his time visiting the project in Ghusel village.

“This photo and the shots around it were captured when we revisited Ghusel [after the initial filming]. What I really like about these images is that they show the entire community in this field of corn, all working together. For me, that’s something that typifies the traditional Nepali way of relating to each other – something which is not seen so much in the bigger cities. The whole village is working together, they’re all out in the field weeding, but they’re having fun. It’s hard work but it’s community time – it’s part of life. It’s something that we’ve lost in the UK where we tend to compartmentalise work, rest and play. Here in Nepal, it’s all rolled in together… These photos demonstrate something of what it means to live life in all its fullness – that’s how we were designed to live.”

“I love to just sit down and chat with people – I’m a bit of an extrovert and it helps that I speak Nepali. I like to get to know people, to spend time with them – to hear about their joys and their hardships. When our filming plans were interrupted one rainy morning, we spent from 5 am to 10 am in a teashop, just sitting and chatting with people. That was how our conversation with Gurratan*, a local Nepali politician came about, and that chance encounter allowed us to hear really important feedback about the project. It’s a good reminder that we need to give space to allow God to work and not to pack in as much as possible.”

You can hear from Gurratan, a ward leader in Ghusel, in the next issue of Engage, the BMS World Mission magazine.

“Everybody is created in God’s image, and when I’m taking photos, I want to show the character and the beauty of that person. It doesn’t matter what their circumstances, everybody is beautiful.”

“The interaction with people – taking that photograph – and then showing them the outcome and seeing their smile is priceless. That’s the reason I love showing photographs on the back of the camera to people. They just light up. You really can use photography to encourage people as well as sharing their story.”

“When looking at these photos it’s easy to miss the hardship of life in Ghusel and especially its remoteness. The people who are sometimes overlooked in a project are the drivers. We put our life in their hands. These guys are really skilled – our driver was fantastic. I’m very keen on the idea of training drivers working for partner organisations to take photographs while on location – they often have the time to do so, speak the language, understand the project and the culture. They are such a valuable resource.”