“Is the antenna out far enough?
Rangoon, Burma 2011
Two young men, dressed in longyi, check their phone for messages.
Rangoon was, until recently, the capitol of Burma, but in 2006 the capitol was moved to a city in the north of the country. Vestiges of English Colonial influence remain in the city with its many public buildings and hotels from those days. My husband and I walked the city streets looking for remnants of the English era on our last day in Rangoon. That’s when I shot this photo.
You can see that the city is a rather tumbled down, crumbly affair. Gaps in the sidewalk, facades falling off buildings, soot stains and trash in the gutters. To me, though, the shabbiness lends a charm that “spic and span” can never have. George Orwell wrote his first novel, Burmese Days, describing his time in Burma as a policeman for the British civil service. I had read his book and looked forward to seeing the Strand Hotel, a remnant of British colonial life, and reliving the ambiance of Burmese Days..
We celebrated my birthday by having afternoon tea at the Strand. The room was painted a cream color with dark, perhaps mahogany, woodwork. Black and white photographs, not too old, hung on the walls. Finger sandwiches, scones and pastries were graciously served and eagerly eaten. It was a special day for me and my husband; we felt surrounded by the past.
Street photography is not as easy as it seems. First off, most often when I’m traveling, I’m not out on the street during photography’s golden hours. And shooting buildings without good light is almost futile, even when they have intriguing emblems set out in curlicues. You can zero in on the emblems, but I always feel that I am cheating when I just photograph the tiny details. Anyone can do that…well, anyone can do what I do anyway, but being there and being there at the right moment with the right subject just happening to be doing something interesting…well, I’m happy when that happens. I look for that as well as try to showcase the architecture when I can.
Lunch on the Steps
I shot this because my eye was attracted to the tile on the wall behind the woman. The woman makes the tile interesting even if it isn’t the star of the photo. It shows that she is eating her lunch on the steps of a building that has seen better days. I made this into a digital painting because it seems to me that paintings can highlight insignificant occasions and make them seem important.