After three weeks in Myanmar (previously Burma) I came home with thousands of photos. I carefully selected my favorite shots of temples, people, sunsets and turned them into series. What those series don’t show is the story behind the photo. Below my five absolute favorite pictures and their making-of story.
BEST FRIENDS
Kalaw, Myanmar 27.12.2018
In Kalaw I stumbled upon a train station. I couldn’t make sense of the train schedule, though there were enough people on the platform to think a train would appear any time soon. I sat down. ‘Soon’ meant forty five minutes later.
Being tall, caucasian and blonde, meant I attracted quite a bit of attention wherever I went in Myanmar. And kids are the most obvious and bold in their curiosity. This kid was fascinated by my camera and I had to take photos of him and all his friends. He only had one hand and was a little self conscious about it. His best friend could’t care less, she complete ignored me and only had eyes for him. That’s love.
BOSS MONK
Bagan, Myanmar 24.12.2018
Cleaning pagodas and buddhist monuments is an honor and most religious people spent every bit of free time they have sweeping and polishing away. Not this lot though. We encountered a mixed group of locals, looking cranky and weeding around a few pagodas. A monk was overseeing their work and pointing/shooting directions. Clearly they were doing community service. Possibly they walked into a temple with their shoes on or rubbed Buddha the wrong way?
MAGIC HOUR
Bagan, Myanmar 24.12.2018
When traveling through Asia you know at one point your stomach and intestines will turn against you. A (proper) toilet nearby is all you care about. Shitty thing, pun intended, is when this happens right before the highlight of your trip. However I wasn’t gonna let anything take a visit of Bagan away from me. I took every drug I could find in my suitcase and went to bed early.
The next day we started our explorations of the area at 8am and it’s soft to say around 4pm we were pooped. Everybody went back to the hotel but I wanted, nay needed, to see the sunset. The TukTuk dropped me off a little hill. I picked my position. Guarded it form a flock of Japanese tourists and waited for magic hour.
And then it happened. Right before the best light my sd-card was full. PANIC. I ran down the hill to the TukTuk where my bag was. Climb back up. Shoved a Jap out of my way, aimed my camera and the birds happened. Magic.
CURIOUS MONK
A group of young novices were learning buddhist texts when we arrived at this monastery. And these kids have admirable focus, the click-click-click of our cameras didn’t distract them one bit. This lucky shot is due to a little rock. Barefoot, I stepped onto something sharp and let go a ‘auch fuck godver’. This kid looked up and CLICK, got ya!
After study time, it was play time and I shot these beauties.
SAFETY FIRST
Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar, is a strange architectural mix. New(ish) skyscrapers stand next to rundown old English buildings from the 1850’s. And I happen to LOVE ruinous buildings. The thing you should never do, with these types of buildings, is go into them. Death traps. Especially if there is a warning sign right outside the door. So what did I do? Of course. :-)
