Burma Daze

In between work and all the detritus of life I'm slowly getting through the pics that I took in Burma in July. One of the outcomes will be a series in a similar vein to the one I did in Cuba where I used Graham Greene's novel, Our Man in Havana, as inspiration. This time round it will show how I imagine Burma was during the era of Kipling and George Orwell's book Burmese Days. Not too difficult as, much like Cuba, modern day Myanmar looks very much like it's caught in a time warp and it's easy to find subject matter reminiscent of life in the early twentieth century.

Rangoon - Magic Lantern slide, Photographer unknown.

I've also started to accumulate a small collection of old postcards, magic lantern slides such as the image of Rangoon, above, to serve as a reference point and be included in the final book of the project. 

To give the 'feel' of the time I've been producing digital negatives from my photos and sandwiching these with various 'texture' negatives to give an aged, distressed look to the final darkroom/analog prints. Some of the early test prints can be seen on my flickr page, but here's a scan of one of the prints as it starts to near the final product. It's printed on my dwindling stock of Agfa Multicontrast Classic Fine Grained Matt, fibre-based paper, sepia toned then hand colored using the Marshall  photo retouching oil paints. 

Shan women at the morning market, Nyaungswhe, Burma. - Hand colored silver gelatin print

 It's a slow process, tweaking digital files to get a decent analog negative, selecting the 'right' texture/distressed layer to give the look, printing, toning and hand coloring, but I'm slowly getting there. Stay tuned....

Burma Daze - Chasing George Orwell and Rudyard Kipling.

After many years, I finally made it to Burma (Myanmar) a place that has long interested me thanks to the literature of George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling and the exploits of Orde Wingate's Chindits fighting the Japanese during World War 2.   

It was an awesome trip and over the next few weeks I'll have to sort through the images and whittle them down to a reasonable edit. But, for now, here are some of the snapshots that I took with my iPod Touch which came as a throw in when I upgraded my Macbook pro recently. I took it with me to listen to some podcasts and stuff during the quiet times but ended up using the camera and its apps to grab some snapshots between beers and the more 'serious' photographic endeavours. 

Hotel room views - dreaming of George Orwell and Rudyard Kiplinfg

Puppet, Rangoon

Sule Pagoda, Rangoon

Ananda Pahto temple, Bagan

Stupa Ruins, Indein

Buddha at Nga Hpe Kyaung

Betel nut seller, Mandalay

Rangoon

Preparing for the road to Mandalay

Shan market, Indein

Coffee and propaganda somewhere over the Irrawaddy

Fisherman, Inle lake

Nyaungshwe

Monks sharing a cigar...yes they're kids.

The Irrawaddy

Roadside book stall, Rangoon.

Departure lounge, Yangon

When the generals talk... (with apologies to Midnight Oil)

Flight

 Now it's time to start editing and printing, so stay tuned for more photos and an in depth trip report.

New (old) toys

Over the years I've accumulated a small collection of old postcards and ethnographic images from the various places that I've visited. These include a number of the stereo photographs made by the Keystone View Company. Called Stereographs, these were a pair of near identical images that were taken at a slightly different angle to each other. When sat side by side and viewed through a special viewer the images merged and gave a 3D effect. .

Mounted on stiff card with an image caption, these Stereocards were immensely popular and from about 1860 until the 1920's this was the way many people saw the world beyond their shores... Until movie newsreels and then television finally relegated them to the attics, trunks and junk shops.

When I was studying photography at college, I majored in Scientific & Industrial Photography and we spent some time learning the formulas to determine exactly how far apart the lens needed to be placed for two images to ensure a three dimensional scene when observed through the viewing glasses. Something about lens separation equaling the depth point factor multiplied by the far point factor multiplied by the lens factor... or something like that. Was kinda fun getting the results, but f***d if I can remember all the formulas and calculations to get to a successful result now. But, it was something that I always thought that I'd like to have a crack at again. 

Fast forward to 2011, fellow photographer 'Dan the man' Grant and I are planning a trip to Burma a little later this year. Doing some research and looking for some stuff on ebay I find this little beauty. 

 A 1950's era Kodak Stereo Camera!!! Uses 35mm film to produce a 24mm stereograph. Heavy bastard, made from bakelite and metal... and comes complete with it's own built in spirit level. Just downloaded the manual from the Orphan Cameras.com Camera Manual Library ... A bloody great resource that everybody should bookmark and support. If you've got an old or second hand camera and need the manual, it's the place to go. Now to load some film and give it a test run. May have to take it along on the trip and put my twist on some of those amazing old Keystone Stereocards. Stay tuned folks.

Pic of the week

Mother & Child from the 'Long neck' Burmese Karen/Paduang ethnic minority group

Hand coloured B&W, silver gelatin print