Adriane Ohanesian April 8, 2015

KIA military training in Kachin State, Myanmar 2013

Adriane Ohanesian (b.1986 USA) graduated from the International Center of Photography’s photojournalism and documentary photography program in 2010. Upon the completion of her degree, she moved to Khartoum, Sudan and has been photographing mainly in Africa ever since. Over the last few years Adriane has photographed in South Sudan, rebel controlled Sudan, Somalia, and rebel controlled Myanmar. Her work which documented the lives of the women rebel soldiers in Kachin State, Myanmar earned her recognition by Magnum Photos as one of the top ’30 under 30’ photographers for 2014. Adriane’s photographs have appeared in the New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic and TIME. She is currently based in Nairobi.

About the Photograph:

“My personal project on the women soldiers of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) was a challenge that I wanted to take on for myself as most of my work has been focused on eastern Africa. Kachin State, in northern Myanmar, is not solely controlled by the government, but is held by the KIA. The KIA is the last remaining major rebel group in Myanmar that has not signed a ceasefire agreement with the government. The women of Kachin have few opportunities in this isolated region aside from serving with the KIA. From the age of 16, women are eligible to join the army and they often remain there until they are discharged for marriage. While some join out of dedication to their people, others are forcibly recruited.”

“This photo was taken before sunrise on the KIA’s military base outside of the town of Mai Ja Yang, on the border of Myanmar and China. I had been granted permission to spend the night on the base. It was still dark outside and the only light came from an orange bulb that hung from the ceiling of the small hut where ten women slept side by side on a woven platform. The soldiers, having slept in their uniforms, were reluctant to wake up for their training and snuggled down under the blankets. This scene was important to me because I felt invisible, a comforting feeling that meant that the women were open to my presence. I was standing above these two women and was tiptoeing around the others that were sprawled out next to one another. This scene demonstrated the loneliness that I often saw amongst new recruits to the army. For most of the women, military training was their first experience away from their homes and their families, and now they only had each other to turn to for support.”

Geoffrey Hiller/ Daybreak in Myanmar Book Launch December 11, 2014

Editor’s note: I’ll be out of the country this January in Myanmar and will resume showcasing new photographers on February 2, 2015. Hard to believe that Verve Photo has featured close to 1,000 photographers from over 80 countries during the past seven years. Happy New Year to all of you out there!

Listening to a transistor radio in a Yangon tea shop, Myanmar 2013

These images are from my new book Daybreak in Myanmar. I’ve returned to Burma several times since my first trip in 1987. The country was frozen in time until a few years ago when the government announced a democratic opening. Most of the visible economic and social changes have occurred in Yangon, but in the villages change is slower. On-going trouble in the border areas with ethnic minorities (including the Rohingya) continues to flare. The Burmese people know that there is still a lot of political uncertainty going forward.

Students near the university, Yangon 2012

The book is 192 pages with 170 color photographs printed on 157 gsm matte art paper. Trim size is 18.5 x 25.5 cm. It’s sequenced by time of day showing Burmese daily rhythms and includes six short interviews with leading Burmese writers and activists by UK journalist Francis Wade. Order a copy of the book here $29.95 + shipping. Thanks for supporting this project. By doing so you are supporting documentary photography and all of the work that has gone into creating Verve Photo.

 
River shrine, Hpa-an 2000

Brennan O`Connor April 24, 2014

Karen State, Myanmar 2013

Brennan O`Connor (b. 1970, Canada) has worked for many of Canada’s leading publications before dedicating himself full time to cover self-generated under reported stories in mainstream media. In 2010, he relocated to Asia to follow a long-term project on Burma’s borders and subsequent effects for ethnic populations whose traditional territories’ fall on both sides of the dividing lines. The project, will eventually cultivate into a book, has taken him around the region to photograph the numerous rebels, refugees and migrants residing in the borderlands. Brennan’s work has been published in Burn (USA), The Walrus (Canada), The National (UAE) and Al Jazeera (Qatar).

About the Photograph:

“Before this photo was taken in rebel controlled Karen state, the Karen National Union (KNU), (right) and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA); now named the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (center), were still fighting with each other. This image was taken in an area that both rebel groups controlled at different times and documents a joint medical operation only months after the two Karen armed groups mended their relationship. The carefree children passing by on the left depict the reliance of civilians that have had to accommodate the various armies that frequently passed through their villages during a civil war spanning over sixty years. In recent years a ceasefire was signed with both the KNU and DKBA-5, but the region still remains largely militarized, playing host to large numbers of armed groups, especially government troops.”

Geoffrey Hiller Burma Book Project on Kickstarter September 9, 2013

Yangon 2012

Editor’s Note: Exciting news, I’ve just launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to publish my book on Burma. My life-long dream has been to see my images in book form, to feel the weight of the pages and to share this experience with viewers.

A wonderful team is in place to help. Professional editors/designers, Natasha Chandani and Lana Cavar have begun working with me to produce a high-quality 192-page book of color photographs. Essays by prominent Burmese writer Dr. Ma Thida, a political activist and herself a former political prisoner, and journalist Francis Wade will accompany the images. The book will be in print by April 2014.

Please check out my Kickstarter page and help to make this project a reality. Your donation will pay for the costs of producing and printing a beautiful book. Among the rewards are limited edition prints and a signed copy of the book. Remember, Kickstarter crowd-funding is all or nothing- we need to raise our entire goal or the project won’t be funded.

Thank you so much for supporting this important work and spreading the word to colleagues and friends!

Geoffrey Hiller on the Recent Violence in Myanmar March 25, 2013

Editor’s note: In light of last week’s tragic events in Meiktila, Myanmar I’m posting a report from my visit there last month. All photographs by Geoffrey Hiller.

College graduates leaving a beauty salon. Meiktila

About the Photographs:

Last month while in Myanmar I spent a few days in the town of Meiktila, in the center of the country between Naypyidaw and Mandalay. The bus from Taungoo was packed with people and chickens and bales of bamboo, and stopped every couple minutes to pick up more passengers.  The distance was 150 miles but the trip took eight hours. I had called the day before to reserve a room at the main hotel but was told it was fully booked. I didn’t want to return to Yangon or go on to Mandalay, so I went to Meiktila any way. Sure enough, plenty of rooms were available.

The bus dropped me off in the Muslim part of town near a large mosque, across from a tea shop where a man was baking nan in a fiery clay oven. I took a motorcycle-taxi to the hotel, had dinner and walked around the neighborhood to get oriented my first night. After the bustle of Yangon, the small-town atmosphere was welcoming. Shop owners relaxed outside on tree-lined streets, chatting with each other.

Aung San Suu Kyi and her former husband Michael Aris visited Meiktila on their honeymoon in 1972. It’s a pleasant town on a lake as big as Inle Lake. An English-style clock tower looms over the center of town. In my three days there the only other foreigner I met was a middle-aged man from Russia who spoke to me in Spanish.

The next day I visited one of the mosques on the other side of the railway tracks near my hotel. It was Friday afternoon, the Muslim sabbath, and was filled with men attending early afternoon Namaz service. After prayers they met in the front hall to socialize. One of them offered me bananas. Down the street there was an Indian grocery store run by Sikhs who had immigrated to Burma after the British left. I couldn’t help but notice the brisk business they were doing with a diversity of customers, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim.

I began my day at the Golden Rain Tea Shop, which was on a leafy street alongside three other large cafes. I noticed a brightly lit shop that turned out to be a beauty salon. It was graduation season and everywhere in Meiktila exquisitely dressed young women were getting ready for their commencement ceremonies. Photo studios were doing a brisk business. The graduates had majored in subjects such as electrical engineering and botany. It was doubtful that they would find work in those fields, but they were still hopeful.

In one salon owned by a group of gay men from Mandalay, a bride had just had her hair styled and was waiting for the groom to arrive.

Later in the day I photographed young girls breaking rocks by hand and paving the road. This was the norm for most, who had to leave school after a few years to do manual labor or housework or sell vegetables at the market. It reminded me of how little things have changed in Burma for centuries.

Buddhist monk collecting donations

One month after I left, the media reported that fighting erupted after an argument between a Buddhist couple and Muslim owners of a gold shop. After my experience in this peaceful town, the news reports about the fighting and killing and burning of homes is unbelievable to me. I had talked with dozens of residents of Meiktila, both Buddhists and Muslims, and I never would have guessed such violence would erupt. On my last day in Meiktila I waited for the night bus to Yangon at the Asia World stop, at a Shophouse where an extended Muslim family lived. The bus from Mandalay was two hours late but the father invited me in and offered me grapes. He showed me the rows of family photographs that covered the walls. As I follow the news, I fear for him and all his family who treated a stranger with such kindness.

An eery thing that I noticed after the bus picked me up was that an elderly monk who was sitting in the front got angry and started banging his plastic water bottle on the seat. The man next to me said that the bus had broken down before and the monk was frustrated because of the delay. This scene was uncharacteristic for the Burmese, and particularly a Buddhist monk. Now I wonder if it foreshadowed the shocking events to come.

James Mackay April 5, 2012

“Generation Wave” outside Insein Prison. Rangoon. Burma 2012

James Mackay (b.1970 England) is a documentary photographer based in South East Asia and the UK. He studied at Central St Martin’s College of Art & Design in London and has worked extensively, often undercover, in Burma documenting humanitarian and political issues in the military controlled country. His long-term project on Burma’s political prisoners was selected as part of the Open Society Foundation’s ‘Moving Walls 19’ and has recently been published as a book ‘Abhaya – Burma’s Fearlessness’. His work has published in: The New York Times, The Independent, The Guardian, Le Monde, Vogue UK and Vogue Japan as well as by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. He is currently working in Burma as the country goes through historic political change.

About the Photograph:

“This photograph was taken outside the notorious Insein prison in Rangoon early in the morning of Friday 13^th January 2012, Wearing t-shirts demanding the release of political prisoners, members (and colleagues of mine) of the once outlawed student organization, ‘Generation Wave’, line up waiting in anticipation for the release of said political prisoners, including more than 14 from their group jailed for their political activities. In a country where for decades most people have lived a life of fear, too afraid to speak out and where thousands have been jailed for their political beliefs, euphoria erupted in Rangoon on that historic day as prominent opposition leaders and political dissidents including the famed ‘88 Generation Students’ were freed from prison under a presidential amnesty.” (more…)

Geoffrey Hiller- Burma Update January 30, 2012

Moulamain, Burma 2012

Editors Note: I’ll be in Burma till Feb 11th covering events as the country continues to evolve on a daily basis. This is my fifth visit to Burma and it’s day and night compared to six short months ago. There is a good chance I’ll be here longer. Photo-editors can contact me through my website.

Chien-Chi Chang October 29, 2011

Burma, Land of Shadows: A production of Magnum in Motion with photographs and video by Chien-Chi Chang.