Travel Photographer of the Year: Burma

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Monica Denevan: Burma

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Dede Pickering: Myanmar 2011

Once again, Dede Pickering has just returned from her photographic travels and this time it's from Myanmar (Burma). Having retired from the corporate world, she became a photographer, and traveled to Antarctica, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, China, Cambodia, Peru, Patagonia, Kosovo, Albania, Rwanda, New Zealand, Guatemala, South East Asia and has made multiple trips to Africa and India, as well as Cuba.

From the many photographs in Dede's Myanmar gallery, I stopped at the lovely one above of young nuns. Girls, as boys more commonly do, take vows during ordination, and practice the same activities as do the boys for monkhood, with the only visual being that they wear pink instead of red robes.

Dede's Myanmar gallery has 34 images, out of which 18 are verticals...an almost perfect balance with her horizontals, If it had been my photographs, the gallery would have been all horizontals!! It's always interesting to appreciate and study other travel photographers' points of views and compositional styles.

Fotopedia & NatGeo Traveler: Dreams of Burma

Fotopedia, the publisher of popular apps for the iPhone and iPad, as well as the creator of a collaborative photographic encyclopedia, is working with National Geographic Traveler magazine to introduce a new, free app, “Dreams of Burma”, a spectacular digital exploration of the beauty of Burma.

“Dreams of Burma” is a visual journey packed with more than 1,000 stunning photographs, virtual excursions, trip-building capabilities, social tools for sharing photos, beautiful slideshows and wallpapers.

“If you have been to Burma, this app will transport you back there in an instant. And if you haven’t seen it yet, you may fall in love.” Jean Marie Hullot, CEO of Fotopedia.

I've downloaded the app, and I have started exploring it. I must say that the photography is gorgeous...work by photographers such as Bertrand Devimeux, Eric Lafforgue, Eric Daney, Jean-Marie Huliot, Giancarlo de Luca and many others grace the app that glides effortless and beautifully on the iPad screen.

I highly recommend it...it's free, it beautiful and it's informative. What's not to like?

If you seek more of images of Burma's people, drop by my own People of the Thanaka.

As a footnote: I have no relationship whatsoever with Fotopedia. It's just a gorgeous application.

Travel Photographer of the Year