Thomas Cristofoletti: Once Upon A Time In Burma

Photo © Thomas Cristofoletti-All Rights Reserved

I thought I'd feature work of Myanmar (Burma) which is rapidly becoming the must-see destination in South East Asia after its 'opening' up. I'm told that tourists are descending on this lovely country like hungry locusts over Biblical Egypt, and that hotels and flights are difficult to come by.

Ah, well...I hope the benefits accruing to the touring agencies from this surge trickle down to the people of Burma.

I thought I'd feature Thomas Cristofoletti's photographs of this magnificent country, especially as they're different from the standard travel photo portfolios of posed photographs of Lake Inle fishermen or Buddhist monks in Mandalay or Bagan. His photographs are, for the most part, unposed and natural. And his website includes well composed photography of Burmese people in Yangon's streets, on the ferries, in train stations, and on Inle Lake.

Thomas Cristofoletti is an Italian freelance photographer & videographer based in Phnom Penh, who's working in several social video & photography projects in South East Asia and Europe for international NGOs. His photographs were eatured in international magazines and newspapers, such as The Herald Tribune, The Guardian.co.uk, El Pais, Afisha Mir Travel Magazine, LaRepubblica.it, In Style Russia, and others. 

Cedric Arnold: Yangon Awakening

Photo © Cedric Arnold-All Rights Reserved

I'm really delighted to have stumbled on Newsweek's Picture Dept which features the lovely new work by Cedric Arnold in Myanmar's capital. More photographs are featured on The Daily Beast. I'm a fan of this type of photography, and of Cedric's work which I featured on this blog earlier this year.

The much better laid out gallery on Cedric Arnold's own website is titled Yangon's Awakening, and consists of large format Polaroids of an artist, a poet, a teacher, a student, an office worker, a punk rocker, a forest monk (above)... photographed in front the old and neglected walls of this city, showing the diversity of people, and juxtaposing the traditional and modern Burmese against the peeling paint and masonry of these old walls.

I chose to feature the Polaroid of this forest monk because I came across some of these monks when I walked up and down the path to Kyaiktiyo Pagoda during a photo excursion to Myanmar some 10 years ago, and I recall that they were very reserved, and shy when photographed...perhaps because they were in the midst of a pilgrimage to that sacred site.

These are real Polaroids...not Instagrams and not digital images processed with Alien Skin software and the like.

Lovely work.

Dani Planas Labad: Burma

Photo © Dani Planas Labad-All Rights Reserved

With its governmental reforms of 2011, Myanmar (Burma) has enhanced its "go to" status amongst Western tourists much farther than what it used to be, and travel photographers are now very keen to travel to this wonderful country to document a culture before it become too influenced by Western trends.

Dani Planas Labad is a Spanish travel photographer who's traveled and photographed in Morocco,  Cambodia, India, Nepal, Iceland, Burma, New York and his native Barcelona. He tells his audience that he discovered his passion for photography when he turned 30, and toured Asia for 5 months with a Nikon F80. He bought a medium format Seagull camera in a Chinese street market, and subsequently took up digital photography.

The young boy in Dani's photograph is wearing thanaka paste on his face; widely used in Myanmar for the past 2000 years, it serves as sunscreen.

Lovers of Myanmar will relish Dani's gallery with over 80 photographs of the people and landscapes of the country.

Monica Denevan: Burma

Photo © Monica Denevan-All Rights Reserved

I'm glad to have found Monica Denevan's website with its gorgeous photographs of Burma and China. Trust me...you will find that her some 120 photographs are indeed luminous and gorgeous.

Monica travels with her medium format Bronica, one lens, and a bunch of plastic bags filled with Ilford Delta 400 film. She tells us that her photographs are printed from negatives in her traditional darkroom and selenium toned.

Classic photography in the full meaning of the word, and the farthest thing from the Instagram and Hipstamatic fad.

Born in San Francisco, Monica studied photography at San Francisco State University. She started visiting parts of Burma and China for many years, and always had her Bronica along. Her work was published in ZYZZYVA, Communication Arts Photo Annual, SHOTS, Black and White Magazine, The Photo Review, The Sun, and Artvas-The Photo (Korea) among others.

She is represented by Scott Nichols Gallery in San Francisco, Duncan Miller Gallery in Santa Monica, Capital Culture Gallery in London, and Tao Evolution Gallery in Hong Kong which produced a small catalogue of her work. Monica’s photographs are in the permanent collection of UCSF Medical Center.

Myanmar: Ruben Vincente & João Almeida

Ruben Vicente and João Almeida have just inaugurated a photo exhibition of their work from Myanmar (Burma) in Lisbon, just a few minutes away from the Belém neighborhood. It will be available until mid September, and if I lived in Europe, I'd go just to view their images. Yes, I would. I even have the address: Espaço João Sousa Valles Rua Gonçalves Zarco, 2A Lisboa.

Ruben is a freelance photographer (and a computational physicist) and  João is also a freelance photographer (and a web developer), both living and working in Lisbon.

Ruben has just published an excellent ebook titled Myanmar: A Journey Through Time of his photographs, along with cogent and well written travel photography advice for this wonderful country, just emerging from a state of military dictatorship. I know there's a rush of travelers and photographers to Myanamr (Burma)...so do yourself a real favor, buy Ruben's ebook and drop Lonely Planet and the like.

They sent me a short video clip of the photo exhibition, which provides a preview of what attendees will see.



I also have a couple of photographs by Ruben and João to convince you to view their websites, attend the exhibition if you can, and buy Ruben's book.

Photo © Ruben Vincente-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Joao Almeida-All Rights Reserved

Anthony Pond: The Ring Train of Yangon

Whether in Myanmar (Burma), India, China, Viet Nam or elsewhere, trains or trams are wonderful to meet local people, and photograph them.

In Yangon (Rangoon), a local railway line does a loop from the city’s main station through the inner city, suburbs and outlying villages, before returning to the station some 3 hours later. The "circular" is a train for local people, offering hard (and worn) wooden seats, sputtering fans, and with occasionally stuck windows, but it's a fascinating insight into local life.

Anthony Pond has just produced another audio slideshow of black and white (toned with Silver Efex Pro 2) photographs, and which were made during a ride on the circular train of Yangon. My very favorite is the one of the elderly nun.

Anthony worked for more than two decades in the criminal courts in California as an attorney for the Public Defender’s Office. Now pursuing his passion for travel and photography, he traveled repeatedly to South East Asia and India, amongst other places, to capture life, the people and the culture.

He is joining me on my The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop™ in a few weeks, and I certainly look forward to be working with him during it.

Anthony Pond: On Yangon's Wharf

Here's an audio slideshow of black & white stills by Anthony Pond on the porters at Yangon's wharf. It's his first attempt to use SoundSlides and Audacity, and I am impressed.

Anthony Pond worked for more than two decades in the criminal courts in California as an attorney for the Public Defender’s Office. Now pursuing his passion for travel and photography, he traveled repeatedly to South East Asia and India, amongst other places, to capture life, the people and the culture.

His photography website has galleries of his work from Laos, Nepal, India, Burkina Faso, Mali, Cuba, Mexico and Cambodia, as well as others.

Anthony is joining me on my The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop™ this coming March, and I certainly look forward to be working with him during it.

Brenden Allen: Mandalay To Mytikina

Photo © Brenden Allen-All Rights Reserved

Since Myanmar is all in the news, with Aung San Suu Kyi meeting with Hillary Clinton during her official trip to that country -- the first visit by a U.S. Secretary of State in half a century -- which is described by some as a breakthrough moment in U.S.-Burma relations, I thought it timely to feature some fresh photographic work from Myanmar.

Brenden Allen's Mandalay To Mytikina is the result of 27 hours aboard a train (described as a 'rattler') from Central Burma to Kachin State in December 2011. Myitkyina is the capital city of Kachin State in Myanmar (Burma), and is located 1,480 kilometers from Yangon, and 785 kilometers from Mandalay. Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma, and 700 kilometers north of Yangon.

Brenden is a photographer from Brisbane, Australia. From his sparse biography, it seems he can be found mostly in South East Asia, or moving around Burma and its borders. His galleries also include square format photographs (possibly Holga) of South West Bolivia.