Sofie Olsen | The Moken People

Photo © Sofie Olsen-All Rights Reserved

The Moken are an ethnic group of about 2,000 to 3,000 members who live on the coast and islands in the Andaman Sea, on the west coast of Thailand, and the Mergui Archipelago of Burma. In Thailand, they're called Chao Ley (people of the sea) or Chao nam (people of the water). They're also called Sea Gypsies; a generic term that applies to a number of peoples in southeast Asia.

Some of the Burmese Moken are still nomadic people who roam the sea most of their lives in small hand-crafted wooden boats, however much of their traditional life, built on the premise of life as outsiders, is under threat and appears to be diminishing.

The Norwegian photographer Sofie Olsen travelled to the Surin Islands in the Andaman Sea, located 55 km from the Thai mainland to document the Moken people’s way of life and on-going aquatic-based culture.

Ms Olsen attended the International Center of Photography in New York City, where she graduated in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism in June 2011. Following her graduation Olsen was awarded the Center’s prestigious ICP Directors Fellowship. She won the London Festival of Photography Prize in 2012 with her photo-film I Am Light, which features an artist living in an alternative encampment in Norway together with Roma Gypsies. 

Jodi Champagne | Myanmar Monks & Nuns

Photo © Jodi Champagne -All Rights Reserved

I noticed that I hadn't posted the work of a woman photographer since June 11...a rather long and unusual interval  for The Travel Photographer blog.

So to redress this accidental slipup, I feature Myanmar Monks & Nuns, a gallery of 29 large photographs by Jodi Champagne. With a couple of exceptions, these are in color and are carefully posed. Although the colors are lovely, my favorite is the one above of a Burmese nun in black & white.

Additionally, you shouldn't miss Jodi's photo gallery Choices They Make documenting a Shinbyu ceremony which marks the ordination of young boys as novice monks, as well as girls as nuns.

Her website also has galleries of Cuban streets, of the Karen Padaung women, and other documentary work.

Jodi Champagne is a photographer based in California, and has worked as a portrait, wedding, family and sports photographer and quickly discovered her true passion was in documentary and street photography. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions in the U.S., Europe and Latin America. Her photographs have been widely published in books, magazines, and used for editorial and commercial work. She received the Worldwide Gala Street Photography and the NYCFA Portrait Awards in 2012. 

POV: The Inle Lake Fishermen Are So Tired!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I traveled to Myanmar (Burma) twice in 2001 and 2002. At that time, it was still very much "off the grid of mass tourism", and few tourists could be seen...either put off by the comparatively onerous entry requirements (and restrictive travel itineraries) or by their unwillingness to support the military junta, directly or indirectly. When I was in this lovely country, there was no internet as such (just a few approved businesses had it), no mobile telephony...but few cared. Burma and its people more than made up for these little inconveniences.

Recently the country has opened up and changed in many ways. Aung San Suu Ky was released from her house confinement, and her party won most of the seats in the lower parliament. Tourists are flocking in to the country as if these's no tomorrow...hotels are overbooked...flights are full and groups of Western and Asian tourists are spending time and hard currency to the benefit of the local Burmese.

This opening up has generated a lot of travel images by photographers...either on professional websites, or on social media. However, I haven't seen much of new approaches or fresh angles.

The photograph (above) of the Inle Lake fisherman I made in 2001 was from a pre-arranged photo shoot during which a few local fishermen would oar their boats not far from the hotel, and I'd photograph them from another rowing boat in the middle of the lake.

Most of what I see nowadays are photographs of for-hire fishermen photographed near the hotels' wharfs where the water is placid and calm...ideal for reflections and other cute stuff.

C'mon photographers...you can do better than that now. Photographs of the for hire fishermen of Inle Lake are a dime a dozen....and they all look alike. Who will buy them? Think of something else...another venue...go to the fishermen villages...produce a photo essay or an audio slideshow of their lives...be inventive and creative.

I've photographed the Inle Lake fishermen at dusk 12 years ago...12 years ago, and you're still photographing the same stuff?

You want ideas? Look at Sim Chi Yin's The Water Seller and Anthony Pond's The Ring Train of Yangon.

Sim Chi Yin | The Water Seller

Photo © Sim Chi Yin-All Rights Reserved

Here's an excellent photo story of a water seller in Myanmar by Singaporean photojournalist Sim Chi Yin. The young water seller's name is Chit Min Oo and this photo feature tells us about the hard life he leads in a country just unshackling itself from the chains of military autocracy.

Chit Min Oo lives in a slum about an hour outside of downtown Yangon, in a single-room hut with his mother, two brothers and a sister. At day break, Chit Min Oo and one of his brothers Pyay Sone Aung, head out onto the train tracks, fetch their buckets, fill them with blocks of ice and water from a nearby tank and jump on the Circle Line train, which remains the cheapest mode of public transport around Yangon.

They hop on and off these trains, weaving in and out of carriages offering their cups of water for mere pennies in the equivalent Burmese currency.

I wish the photo essay was accompanied by a soundtrack...imagine viewing the photographs along with ambient sound such as the rattle of the ancient trains on the tracks, the clicking of the mugs against the buckets, the yells of the sellers, the sound of people in the stations...!

Based in Beijing, Sim Chi Yin is a member of VII Photo Agency’s Mentor Program for emerging talents and was selected for the PDN30 – Photo District News’ top 30 “emerging photographers to watch” – in 2013. She photographs regularly for the New York Times. Since going freelance in 2011, she has also photographed for Le Monde, Newsweek, TIME magazine, Vogue USA, Financial Times Weekend Magazine, New York Times Sunday Magazine and Stern.

Justin Mott | Travel

Photo © Justin Mott -All Rights Reserved

" I hate and love taking pictures of conical hats; it really depends on the day." -Justin Mott

I was challenged (well, sort of) by Justin Mott if I could tell the difference between the photographs he shot for Conde Nast Traveler and those for The New York Times. I think I could tell, but it's now up the readers of The Travel Photographer to take up the challenge. 

A hint: if it looks too perfect and not too documentary-looking, then it's probably Conde Nast. In any event, you'll be certain to enjoy Justin's work which mostly spans 45 photographs of South East Asia (Viet Nam, Myanmar, Cambodia, etc) as well as Tanzania.

Justin Mott grew up in Rhode Island, and studied photojournalism at San Francisco State University but a year before graduating traveled to Southeast Asia, and eventually settled in Vietnam since 2006. He's been photographing regularly for The New York Times, among many others.

He is living in Hanoi, Vietnam and working throughout Southeast Asia on personal projects and assignments since 2006. In 2008, his work on Agent Orange Orphans was recognized in the PDN Annual and was awarded in the Marty Forscher Fellowship for humanistic photography given out by the Parsons School of Design in NYC. Justin is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and various other international publications such as Time, Newsweek, Business Week, Geo, L’Express, GEO, Bloomberg News Service, The Independent, UNESCO, Medecins Sans Frontieres, and the Discovery Channel. He won The Marty Forscher Fellowship Humanistic Photography Award. 

Maarten Boerma | Myanmar

Photo © Martin Boerma-All Rights Reserved

While viewing Maarten Boerma's galleries, I was reminded of wabi-sabi, the Japanese aesthetic concept that is centered on the acceptance of imperfection. It is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete". Not because of his images, but because he's starts off his artist statement by saying "I love beautiful photos, but they should not be all beauty, a little bit of decay, error, rough edges should be part of it."

Maarten's galleries span the globe, and he photographed in Myanmar, Spain, Bangkok, France, New York City, Bhutan, Morocco and his native Netherlands where he works as an IBM Cloud Sales Leader.

I chose to feature his Myanmar gallery because of this wonderful atmospheric photograph, in which the carefully positioned red Burmese umbrella gives the right amount of color to the otherwise monochromatic scene. It's one of his best work, and 46 photographs ought to please anyone interested in Myanmar...street photography, balloons over Bagan, monks and novices...it's all there. Some are candid and impromptu, while others are not.

Most of his photographs are made with a Leica M8 or M9, with a variety of lenses.

João Almeida | Myanmar

Photo © João Almeida -All Rights Reserved

João Almeida appeared on my radar screen when he and Ruben Vicente held their Myanmar photo exhibition in Lisbon in July last year.

And since Myanmar is hot these days for being a prime destination for travelers, I thought I'd feature João Almeida's work which includes people photography and landscapes made in Myanmar, as well as Vietnam, Portugal, Italy, Morocco, Thailand, England, Latvia and a dozen more.

João also authored a lovely ebook titled Minglaba! of no less than 89 photographs made in Myanmar, which is available for purchase for $9.00.

His work is broader than pure travel photography, and is considered as street, documentary, landscape and nature, depending on what the location offers. João is represented by the Alamy and age fotostock agencies, and he's also one of the founding members of the Light Travelers photo collective, a joint effort to explore travel photography in it's various forms and shapes.

Short Hiatus

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy

I thought this image of a sleeping Buddhist monk near the entrance of the Chaukhtatgyi Pagoda in Yangon is appropriate to announce I'll be taking a week's break from posting on The Travel Photographer's blog.

With over 3000 posts under my belt so far, and infrequent breaks, I guess I deserve some time off.

This slide photograph was made with a Canon 1v during a photo trip to Burma in 2001, and I added some filters to it using Exposure 4 software.

Myanmar | Patrik Wallner

Here's a extremely well filmed and intelligently produced short documentary on Myanmar by Patrik Wallner, a well known skateboard videographer, as well as a photographer, which ought to convince any remaining recalcitrant to visit this gorgeous country, and meet its lovely people, before the grip of Westernization takes hold and changes it forever.

The short movie capture beautiful scenes from the perspective of a hot air balloon, and from ground. I found the sequence with the captivating Bagan's temples to be the best.

I frequently dislike the musical soundtrack of such documentaries...sometimes added without regard to the ethnicity, culture and traditions of the country involved, however I think the soundtrack by Jean-Claude Vannier used on Myanmar is an excellent choice.

Some of Wallner's photographs of Myanmar are on this website. The Myanmar video can also be viewed on Vimeo.

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.

Dilla Djalil Daniel: Myanmar

Photo © Dilla Djalil-Daniel- All Rights Reserved

Photo © Dilla Djalil-Daniel- All Rights Reserved

Photo © Dilla Djalil-Daniel- All Rights Reserved

Dilla Djalil-Daniel is a photographer currently living in Jakarta, and just returned from Myanmar where she photographed the country's remarkable people and its stunning scenery.   

Although she travels around the world for her photography, especially in Asia and has a impressive portfolio that ought to be shown on her own personal website, Dilla has yet to have one. It's a shame really...but The Travel Photographer blog features her work as much as it can. Dilla is also an alum of the Istanbul and Buenos Aires Foundry Photojournalism Workshops. In Buenos Aires, she attended the class given by the incomparable Maggie Steber.


Most of her work is in black and white, which I think is courageous on her part especially when depicting countries as color-rich as Myanmar. The top photograph is of the famous Inle Lake fishermen, and is an obligatory scene for photographers visiting the region, however the lower two are different, in the sense that they are more photojournalistic in composition and vision. I particularly like the bottom candid scene of the Buddhist nuns. 

David Lazar: Myanmar Redux

Photo © David Lazar-All Rights Reserved

I featured David Lazar's work on The Travel Photographer blog a few months, and having learned that he had uploaded two new galleries unto his website,  I was eager to take a look. I was not disappointed.

The first gallery is titled Return To Myanmar, and features about 45 portraits and set up photographs made in this beautiful country. These are heavily processed and over saturated, perhaps following the style of many South East Asian photographers who like such effects.

The other gallery is titled Bangladesh In Portrait, and has just under 50 facial portraits and environmental portraits made of Bangladeshis. A far different photographic approach than that of the so-called Bangladeshi school...which is usually black & white, edgy, gritty and super contrasty.

David Lazar is a musician and photographer from Brisbane, and who loves traveling and capturing moments of life through photography. He has won a number of awards and recognitions for his photography which include Shutterbug Awards 2011, Kumuka Travel Photo Contest 2010, Lonely Planet Photo Competition 2010, Asian Geographic - Poetry in Motion Competition 2010, Intrepid Photography Competition 2009...and many more.

David Lazar: The Monks Of Burma

Photo © David Lazar-All Rights Reserved

After the 10 days or so I spent amidst photojournalism work, I thought I'd revert to pure travel photography through the work of David Lazar; a collection of absolutely gorgeous portraits of Burmese monks which are certain to thrill and impress the legions of photographers who traveled to this magnificent land, and who especially favor simple portraiture work. I know quite a number of those photographers, and also know of a few who will be traveling soon to see for themselves what Burma has to offer.

Not only are the portraits just spectacular, but the gallery's presentation is also superb. The gallery of large images is on the Visions of Indochina website.

David Lazar is a musician and photographer from Brisbane, and who loves traveling and capturing moments of life through photography. He has won a number of awards and recognitions for his photography which include Shutterbug Awards 2011, Kumuka Travel Photo Contest 2010, Lonely Planet Photo Competition 2010, Asian Geographic - Poetry in Motion Competition 2010, Intrepid Photography Competition 2009...and many more.

I'm not at all surprised. David's photographs are the type that win awards consistently.