The figures in Absence are often isolated. Framed by the surrounding architecture, they are submerged in pools of darkness and light. A lone cyclist passes by a building burnt out during the civil unrest of Nepal’s “Gen Z protests". A monk returns inward, a split-second after acknowledging the camera’s lens. A man and a priest speak in hushed tones, enveloped by the entrance of a cathedral.

Vik drifts through the streets; be they in Kathmandu, Prague, or less familiar destinations. He searches deliberately for unstaged, untheatrical moments that capture the soul of the locales he passes through and the people who inhabit them. Working exclusively in black and white, he distills the noise (of colors, of crowds, of the chaos of city life) so that the quiet presence of his subjects can be heard. His sense of composition, emphasizing negative space, emerges from his desire to create room for inner reflection, allowing the viewer to connect more intimately with the subject. He wields his camera as his primary tool to restructure his life, to heal his mindset, to rediscover the possibilities of creation.

Having worked as a photojournalist in Nepal, Vik deeply understands the significance of documentation. An understanding also informed by the murky memories of a youth of aimless addiction. Fleeting scenes are made to endure, allowing the emotions within them to be felt across time. The black and white nature of his work lends his images an ambiguous age; they ache with a melancholic yearning for an era with fewer distractions from his quest for inner tranquility.

Absence gathers work from his recent return to Nepal, after three years away documenting Prague. This distance enabled what Vik refers to as, “an outsider’s gaze, with an insider’s knowledge”. An entirely self-taught photographer, Vik views Prague's numerous galleries as the classrooms in which he refined his craft. Throughout Absence, echoes of the work of legendary Czech photographers can be recognized: the subject matter of Josef Koudelka or the interplay of light in Josef Sudek’s work.

"Growing up in Nepal taught me simplicity. Living in Prague taught me depth." — Vik