With the recent developments coming out of Burma, I decided to post a link on my Facebook page to an old gallery of images that I shot in 2008 during a month long trip around the country. At the time I processed the vast majority of images as B&Ws, mainly because I felt that the subject and the files from the camera I used (a Ricoh GRD II) lent themselves particularly well to B&W. However, a friend left a comment saying that she actually preferred the colour versions and this prompted me to finally revisit these images and get them up into my Photoshelter archive – something I have been meaning to do for some time now.
Rather than leave the images as B&Ws, this time I decided to process them in colour using a preset from X-Equals as a starting point. I wanted to give the images an aged, dated look, as if they had been shot many decades ago. Because of the repressive government that still rules Burma, much of the country has been isolated for many years and in some parts I felt as if the people, the buildings, the cars, belonged to a time past. This is just an aesthetic choice of course – despite its enforced isolation, Burma has been developing particularly as a result of its close ties to China to the east. Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, further positive change will come to this remarkable country.
View the full gallery of images here. I would be interested to hear any comments about the processing – too much? I know some of the images are far from being technically correct and some are showing signs of colour banding – the preset is a little too aggressive for the GRD II files I think. But I am pleased with this selection of images – I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed shooting them.
A back street in the capital Yangon (Rangoon), Burma.
Men and women warming themselves around a fire, Hsipaw, Burma.
Early morning mist on the streets of Hsipaw, Burma.
View from the Mandalay ferry, Burma.
A young monk, Mrauk U, Burma
Women carrying nets, Ngapali, Burma.
