There’s always a lot happening on the streets in Yangon. It’s not as crowded or hectic as Hanoi, where I used to live, and the pace of life is slower and less intense, but much of everyday life happens outside. In these pictures, I’ve tried to capture some of those everyday moments that make up the life of a city. I’ve realised that I tend to focus on single people in my pictures, but most of these photographs are about little interactions or shared moments.
The street markets of south-east Asia in general, and currently of Yangon in particular, are a seemingly – hopefully – endless source of photographic inspiration for me. These pictures were taken towards the end of last year in a couple of different markets in downtown Yangon, where shoppers can find fresh fruit, veg, fish, flesh and fowl (and a few other things which don’t alliterate).
I wrote a little while ago that I’m trying to take more pictures after dark; as part of that challenge, I’m hoping to put together a series of night portraits of people lit by their mobile phones. It’ll be a slow burner of a project, I think, but sometimes it’s good to go slow.
Cowboy hats are not a common sight in Yangon; he told me that he wears it because he is an admirer of all things American.
Thanaka, a natural sunscreen made from tree bark, is far more common. She sells bird food for passersby to give to the nearby hordes of pigeons.
Yangonites are a fairly cheerful bunch as a rule; this rather solemn looking gent is one of the exceptions.
Chewing betel leaf is still a very common habit in Myanmar; these pavement stalls can be found on almost every street corner.
Note to self: eat more bananas.
Know your onions.
Individually wrapped apples; only in south-east Asia?
Good vibes; a Buddhist band prepares to take to the streets.
Something magical about the early afternoon light in Yangon, even if it’s just falling on an apartment block.
Sule pagoda; this leafy view is a little misleading as the pagoda is always surrounded by traffic, due to its location in the middle of a downtown roundabout.
I wrote in my last post that Yangon lends itself to colour photography. I think the portraits in this series would work in black and white, but I like the deep reds and blues.
This is the second installment of my hopefully continuing Yangon street portraits series. When I used to take this kind of close-up portrait in Hanoi, with my 85mm lens, I always shot in black and white, but there’s something about Yangon that seems to demand to be photographed in colour. So, for now at least, colour it is.
A few more pictures from my early days in Yangon; like in Hanoi, so much of life here happens out on the street.
I came across these two tough guys outside one of Yangon’s many construction sites one October morning. Often the most unwelcoming looking people end up being the best subjects for photographs. People are nice, as it turns out.
Hard to believe, but I’ve been living in Yangon for just over three months now. I’ve not been posting much in that time, but I’ve been out shooting a lot, building up a sizeable, but just about manageable, backlog of pictures. So, not before time, here are some pictures from my first couple of weeks in the city, taken at the end of September last year (as usual, this blog is lagging some way behind real life, and is showing no real inclination to catch up).
It was a strange, busy, exciting time for me. Staying in a hotel and with my new job yet to start in earnest, I was in a kind of limbo for two or three weeks. There was the feeling of freedom and eagerness to explore that comes with being on holiday, mixed with the slight feeling of trepidation and the nagging need to sort out practical things that come with moving to a new country. So while I spent a lot of time taking pictures and reacquainting myself with Yangon, I also had to find myself somewhere to live and start laying the foundations of a long term stay.
These pictures were all taken in Downtown Yangon, the area that I think of as the heart of the city (and where I now live). It feels a little strange, as a Brit, to use the very American-sounding term Downtown, but that’s what the district’s called, so I’ll just have to get used to it (I’ll be calling people ‘dude’ before you know it). Downtown is the ideal area to dive into Yangon life, and an endlessly rewarding location for photography, its grid of numbered streets making it easy to navigate while always holding out the possibility of streets yet to be explored. There’ll be more – probably quite a lot more – pictures from this part of my new home over the next few weeks and months.
And finally…
Without an H 