The images in Myanmar, a.k.a. Burma, constitute the seventeenth volume in the burgeoning Ubiquities series. This south Asian nation has just opened up to tourists. I went with a small tour group to designated places such as Rangoon (Yangon), Mandalay, Bagan, and Inle Lake. My photographic companion and I had to scurry down residential alleys and hire taxis to take us around the untouristed areas of Burma in order to secure some visual memories of everyday life which the endless pagodas, stupas, and gift shops precluded because of the preplanned tour itinerary.
This is a genuine Third World country but in spite of the Burmese facial inscrutability, most people did not appear miserable. If one projects, a conglomerate of emotions such as contentment, resignation, passivity, squealy humor, pride, and reserved friendliness all appear in succession within an abbreviated sequence of portraits. It is a very Buddhist country that has blasts of gilded pagodas, claret monk robes, and dominant green, red, and yellow English-language advertising posters that promote Burmese beer. This country may become the next Thailand but for now, it still operates day by day with the background specter of corrupt cronies and hidden military.
