Tenzing Dakpa is an alumnus of Rhode Island School of Design with an MFA in Photography (2016) and College of Art, New Delhi with a BFA in Graphic Design (2009).  

He lives and works between Sikkim, New Delhi and Goa.

                                                                                                                                                 For photographer Tenzing Dakpa (b. 1985, Sikkim) “picture-making makes the world visible”. In his work he often explores spaces of comfort, which become a “repository for dialogues of alienation”. Dealing with narratives of tibetan diaspora and migration, the photographer often returns to the hotel owned by his own family in Sikkim. Dakpa currently lives and works in Goa, where he moved from Rhode Island. His most recent work explores land reclamation, forest clearing, burning and the regeneration, as well as other ecological phenomena through images and sound-based installations. Dakpa’s photobook The Hotel was published by Steidl in 2020.

Education

2016 MFA Photography, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, US
2015 Studio Brown University, New Media Physical Computing, Providence, Rhode Island, US
2009 BFA Graphic Design, College of Art, University of Delhi, India

Exhibitions

2024 Weather Report, Experimenter, Kolkata, India
2023 Manifest, Solo presentation, Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa
2023 Guest Relations, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai
2022-23 In Our Veins Flow Ink and Fire, 5th Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India
2020 Solo presentation,The Hotel, Singapore International Photo Festival, Singapore
2019 The Hotel, solo show, Indigo+Madder, London
2019 For those who could see beyond the surface, group show, Peckham 24, London
2018 within|without, group show, Indigo+Madder, London
2018 INDIA: Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art, FotoFest Biennial, Houston, Texas
2016 Hardigree Hall Exhibition Series, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Athens, Georgia
2016 MFA Graduate Show, Clamp Art, New York, NY
2016 MFA Graduate Show, Providence Convention Center, Providence, RI
2016 In Our Company, group show, Design Center Gallery, Providence, RI
2015 In Our Company, group show, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI
2015 Language vs. language, group show, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI
2015 Malice by Proxy, group show, Design Center Gallery, Providence, RI

Honors/Awards

2018 Photobook Award, Singapore International Photo Festival, Singapore
2018 Shortlisted for the First Book Award, Mack, London, UK
2016 Nominated for the Foam Paul Huff Award, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2016 WOOD-STOCK A-I-R, The Center for Photography, Woodstock, NY, US
2014-16 RISD Fellowship, Rhode Island School of Design, RI, US
2015 Shortlisted for Hyères Festival, Hyères, France
2015 T.C. Colley Scholarship for Excellence in Photography, Rhode Island School of Design,RI, US
2015 Graduate Div. Fellowship, Rhode Island School of Design, RI, US


Publications

2023 ARI, Neither, Loose Joints, London
2021 Dungkhar, TIS Books, Brooklyn, New York
2020 The Hotel, Steidl, Gottingen Germany
2018 India/Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art Book, Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam
2017 Papersafe. Issue 8: Close Distance, Catlabs, Rochester
2016 Harris, Clare. Photography and Tibet, Reaktion Books, London

Selected Press


Art Review, June 2024
Dirty Magazine, Issue 03, 2023
American Suburb X, June 2020
British Journal of Photography, May 2019
LensCulture, June 2019
Aperture Magazine, Issue 233 Winter 2018
Another Magazine, 2018