It is always nice to read about photo competitions. But the [him] moderator is concerned about the criteria the judges use. Some HIV-themed photos exploit the suffering of the person living with HIV or member of a vulnerable commmunity. One hopes that the photographer always gets the consent of the subject.
Here are some recent examples of HIV photos from Burma that do not show people living with HIV in a positive light. http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/18/world/asia/myanmar-hiv/index.html or http://enigmaimages.photoshelter.com/gallery/HIV-BURMAS-SILENT-CRISIS/G0000Y_m19zD3Ycw/.
And here is a discussion: http://lnkd.in/Demmg3
[him] moderator
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Photo festival touches the heart
May Sandy
Myanmar Times
Volume 31, No. 613
February 6 - 12, 2012
THE Institut Francaise de Birmanie celebrated its fourth annual photo festival on January 28, which proved its most successful yet, according to the festival’s artistic director.
The year’s best photo-essays were shown on the night, taken from participants of the institute’s intensive photo-essay workshops held throughout last year, as well as from individual submissions.
“Since the beginning of the Yangon Photo Festival in 2009, the interest and enthusiasm of the participants each year is growing,” Christophe Loviny, the artistic director of the festival, told The Myanmar Times.
“We were able to come up with so many powerful stories. I was so touched by some of them. What is important is to touch the heart of the people. Of course you’ll get some technical skills but the strength of the story, its sensitivity, that in the end wins the heart of the people,” he said.
This year’s jury was led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, honoured as the festival’s patron, and who personally congratulated the top three winners.
Other members of the jury included U Soe Myint, owner and managing director of Mizzima, who also co-sponsored the event, followed by French ambassador Thierry Mathou, the director of Institut Francaise de Birmanie Febrice Etienne and the festival’s artistic director Christophe Loviny.
The top three awards went first to U Myo Thame for his essay ‘Gravel Girl’; second prize went to Ma Seng Mai for ‘Life Garden’; and Ms Amélie Chai Shwe received third prize for ‘Lokanat’.
U Myo Thame, said his photo-essay, which follows the story of a girl who carries gravel for a living alongside an interview soundtrack where she talks about her life.
“A friend of mine has this masonry business,” said U Myo Thame, who is also a photographer for UNICEF.
“Whenever I go there I see these kids and I feel upset. I want to do something for them, sometimes giving them some money to buy ice-cream. I thought I couldn’t do anything more than that.”
But as he got to know one of the girls through working with UNICEF, he struggled to come to terms with the contradiction of her situation and wanted to portray that to others.
“Although she is very poor, she is happy with her life. I struggled with this ... but I believe it is a way to freedom. I talked to her and in the end she sang for me,” he said.
For her essay, Ma Seng Mai said she wanted to show the life of Kachin children living in an child care centre, taking a year to fully get to know the children before working with them.
“I wanted to get close with them so that when I took pictures they would be natural.”
Understanding the children’s background also helped her build a narrative to the essay: telling the situation through the children’s voices.
“I’m also a Kachin myself. Most of my people come from the same background of not living together with their parents. Some have lost their parents and some parents are working abroad. I thought it may affect them in certain ways when they grow up, become part of society and have their own family,” said Ma Seng Mai, who was received the first prize at the Institute’s 2009 Yangon Photo Festival.
The third prize photo-essay, Lokanat, named after an old building in downtown Yangon, followed a different kind of subject to the other photo-essays.
“Colonial buildings are a personal interest of mine,” said Ms Amélie Chai Shwe, an American citizen who works as an architect in Yangon. “I’d already looked at a couple of buildings in downtown Yangon but this particular one struck me, it was very special.
“I was drawn by how many different aspects of life it had: little shops, offices and the people living there themselves. It was almost like a world of its own.”
Observing the different lives of the people living in Lokanat, she was able to draw on the building’s past and its unsure status today.
“The building has an interesting past, it changed hands a few times and now it is owned by the government. One of my concerns was how the building could carry on. Obviously, it does need renovation and I wonder what will happen to the people who live in the building,” she said.
Many of the photo essays tackled social issues, including one essay, taken by Ko Ye Naung that documented a HIV prevention and care centre established by Ma Phyu Phyu Thin, herself a former prisoner of conscience and NLD member.
As the evening came to its close, things took on a carnival atmosphere when one of the judges stunned the crowd by taking the stage to declare a donation of US$5000 to the centre and encouraging people for individual donations of $100, raising a further $2000.
“I was so touched seeing the work of so many generous Myanmar people, I wanted to give my support,” he said.
http://www.mmtimes.com/2012/timeout/613/timeout61301.html
