Myanmar in black and white

Myanmar in black and white

A new photo book presents a clearer picture of the country's tangled recent history

Myanmar has become the focus of much media attention over the last few years. It's a nation undergoing huge change within a culture stunted by 50 years of military rule. But while the generals kept Myanmar isolated and out of much of the world media's spotlight, one photographer _ Nic Dunlop _ trained a curious and critical lens on the country for more than 20 years. Now he's sharing his insights in a detailed new book about the country, Brave New Burma.

FIRMLY IN CONTROL: Armed Forces Day commemorates the birth of the modern Myanmar army in 1945. In March, 2007, some 15,000 troops marched on a vast parade ground beneath statues of long dead Myanmar kings in Nay Pyi Taw. PHOTOS: NIC DUNLOP/PANOS PICTURES

Dunlop is known for finding Khmer Rouge executioner Kaing Guek Eav, or Comrade Duch, in hiding in Cambodia in 1999. He would finally watch him stand trial 10 years later, but his attention turned to Myanmar and its brutal regime much earlier, in 1992, when he started to visit border refugee camps.

A few years later, he was commissioned by the Guardian Weekend magazine to shoot a story in Yangon, and he quickly realised that the country's ''complexity went way beyond conventional media that a single feature could capture'', he says, and the idea of Brave New Burma was conceived.

The book's 200 pages of photos and text present a wide-angled perspective of the country's wrangling with human rights issues, its moves towards democratisation and the stories of the people themselves.

Aung San Suu Kyi was first placed under house arrest by the junta in 1989, and until November, 2010, spent 15 years as a prisoner.

It starts from a ''point of ignorance'', admits Dunlop. But ''there is an evolution'', a journey within the pages beyond his actual physical movements in and out of the country. It documents the process of Dunlop trying to understand the real Myanmar, both personally and professionally.

The images that drive the narrative are striking, beautiful, saddening and telling. He has cast his lens far and wide, from the makeshift clinics in border camps to embattled soldiers on the rural frontlines of the civil war, to the forced-labour camps.

Dunlop has spoken of attempting to find a grand narrative in his shots _ the child labour angle, the human rights abuse perspective _ a quest that took him back to the country again and again. But perhaps the most striking visual components of Brave New Burma are the portraits, significantly placed at the front of the book.

He writes of his distrust of photography, despite having built his reputation on it. His personal wrangling with the medium itself works as a subtext. The ethnic variations, differing shapes and features, but even more the deep creases, the teared cheeks, the emotional eyes _ altogether a historic record more detailed than any academic account.

''The portraits represent everything,'' he says, showing inner resolve. ''That's where the narrative is, restoring photography as a powerful medium.''

The most recognisable portrait in the book is that of Aung San Suu Kyi. Taken in 1996, she stands strongly, confronting the camera with an impatient glare _ an image that would come to represent human rights activism around the globe. But Dunlop has no interest in updating his profile of her. ''It's no longer useful to see Burma [Myanmar] through the prison of Aung San Suu Kyi. She's not useful to think of Burma through anymore.''

She appears in grainy monochrome, like all the images in Brave New Burma. The style is an attempt to create ''an underlying mood'', says Dunlop. Initially it was to avoid the trappings of full-colour, travel brochure-style reportage, which perhaps also explains the lack of images of monks.

SAFE HAVEN: Top, A refugee camp for 70,000 people who fled when the ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar army broke down in June, 2011.

TALKING POINT: Above, A traditional tea shop in Pa An, Karen state, 1998.

''It's easy to get distracted by the beauty of the country. It's too exotic,'' continues Dunlop, who is more interested in harder issues, such as: ''How do you photograph paranoia?''

Rather than rest on the laurels of his strong imagery, Dunlop rounds out the narrative with text. Included are significant historical turns, woven into his own journey through the country and his personal case studies of ordinary people _ victims of the complexities of life under the junta.

Dunlop went through huge hardships putting the book together. It's a life's work that involved 30 visits to the country, he estimates. But he retreats from the cult of the photojournalist, modestly playing down his role in the storytelling.

''We, as journalists, tend to rather overrate our importance to stories,'' he says. ''The Burmese are the ones who put themselves on the line, facing arrest, torture, imprisonment.'' Indeed, they are the faces that act as a visual foreword for the book.

It's an important book. People's image of Myanmar has become dominated by a simplistic battle of good vs evil.

''I realised that we in the West had imposed our own simplistic narrative on Burma's crisis. The reality was far more complex and far more compelling,'' he writes. As the passage of time lends perspective, the complexities of the issues are emerging and books such as Brave New Burma, although not specifically about the ''new'' Myanmar, can help unravel them by providing essential background.

''In the age of Twitter, context is left out so much these days. The book is about providing this and an understanding, or at least comprehension of the complex issues.

''It's not a comprehensive account of Burma,'' insists Dunlop, but Brave New Burma goes a long way to telling the story of the country's people and their unreal history. Few books on Myanmar are more dedicated to telling their story. ''It's where the story starts and ends _ with the Burmese people.''

'Brave New Burma' is available online for 30 (1,440 baht). Nic Dunlop will host the Thai launch and present slides at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand on Tuesday.

an Akhu villager, near Kengtung, Myanmar, 2005.

Karen refugees at the Thai-Myanmar border during the Myanmar army offensive of 1997. More than 20,000 people fled the area, many of them spilling into Thailand.

Aung San Suu Kyi in front of the cameras at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, after receiving an honorary degree in June, 2012.

BRIDGE TO SAFETY: Sho Klo refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border. November, 1992.

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