Tiger of Chapel Market

Tiger with his owner.

April portraits

A few more portraits of friends and neighbours. Basically anyone that comes round or even walks past.. I managed to get a load of fancy old wallpaper rolls, some of them are works of art in themselves, expect to see more soon. Thanks to all!

Colombia Rd Pug

Love your crooked neighbour

I've been shooting a lot of studio portraits lately; friends, neighbours, people I've met in the lift of my building. Thanks to all those who've posed for me. Mike (top right) was hanging upside-down in this one which explains his gravity defying t-shirt and bulging eyes. He now wants me to shoot one of him abseiling from my balcony.. watch this space.

Surreal views

It's not often that landscapes actually capture what you see in camera with no post production, Burma is pretty special in that regard. There's something slightly other-worldly about these which pretty much mirrors how I felt at dawn on top of a hill or mountain, having spent the previous hour sitting and waiting for the sun to appear.

The bigger the Buddha the better

Burmese train

Not the most comfortable way to travel, the tracks are so warped you're either thrown from one wall to the other or flipped several feet into the air, making sleep fairly impossible. The views, however, are stunning as you leave Yangon and head through remote farmland and dense northern forest and jungle.

People of Burma #3

Everyone's a photographer

It's an odd phenomenon in Burma that, despite having been open to tourism since 2011, being white-skinned, blond and beardy still makes you a rarity, worthy of being photographed. This set of images were mostly shot from the hip without much thought to composition and have become some of my favourites. They began as a reaction to my awkwardness at being on the wrong side of the lens but soon became an enjoyable interaction with the locals who clearly found the whole situation as funny as I did. 

Monks with guns

Am I alone in thinking this is strange?

Tipitaka exam

As someone who frequently forgets his own pin number, I found this thing very impressive. The Maha Pasana Cave in north Yangon is a modern amphitheatre clad with a cave-effect concrete façade, entering it is like descending into a Bond villain's lair. Inside were mid-level and senior monks taking their Tipitaka examination which, I learned from some Vietnamese monks who'd come to witness the event, is a test in which sitters are expected to recite from memory four holy books in their entirety. Two examiners are needed, one to check they don't mess up and another to keep an eye on the first. The only sound was the soporific murmur of monks in deep meditation. Surprisingly no-one minded my being there but the shutter click seemed to echo off the walls.

No shoes

Get off

No idea what this sign is referring to. The bucket?

Girl praying

Elmo

Sittwe beach #2

People of Burma #2

Making Buddhas

Chin village

Chin women of Mrauk-U

The government banned the practice of facial tattoo-ing in the '60s so there are only a few left, living in remote villages several hours upstream from Mrauk-U on Burma's West coast. The purpose of the tattoos was, in their words, to make them ugly in order to avoid the attentions of the approaching Japanese army during WWII.

The villagers were very welcoming and we had a great morning trying local food and playing with the kids. As often happens in Burma, the women became serious in front of the camera, giving them a solemnity which disguised their natural friendliness.