In Search of Dignity, exhibition of Günter Pfannmüller and Wilhelm Klein (German photographer and writer), made its first appearance in Myanmar during this 9th edition of the Yangon Photo Festival. On the fence of Maha Bandula Park, at the heart of the city, the passers-by were able to admire about forty portraits illustrating the country’s ethnic diversity: Bamar Shan, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Padaung.
The exhibition fits into the context of the new process of peace. Seventy years ago, in February 1947, General Aung San, independence negotiator and father of Aung An Suu Kyi, signed, with leaders Shan, Kachin, and Chin, an agreement in Panglong which opened the path to a federal state gathering one hundred and thirty-five different ethnic groups. The assassination of Aung San and General Ne Win’s take over sounded the end of this agreement respecting diversity. Today, Burma is still victim of many violent, multi-ethnic conflicts. Aung San Suu Kyi is trying to restart the process by inviting leaders of the country’s minority groups to reunite for the “21st Century Panglong Conference”.
From the early 1980s, Pfannmüller and Klein had been among the first Westerners authorized to visit the country. They went in search of dignity that, according to them, is the link between all the ethnic groups. The two Germans traveled across Burma to see the last living cultures distanced from a more and more materialistic world, succeeding in penetrating into the regions spared by technological progress and globalization.
With the help of a photography portrait studio that they created, they photographed the country’s different ethnic groups. Photographs were taken in the studio to isolate, and thus identify, the characteristic elements of each individual and keep the trace of a humanity excluded from the contemporary civilization.
Klein stated about his partner, “What makes Pfannmüeller’s photography so fascinating and unique is the nearness he produces; he lets the people tell their story through their eyes, their attitude and their bearing. Looking at them, a deep feeling of brotherhood, of sameness, and of the shared human predicament is evoked in the viewer. A feeling that transcends all ethnical, political and social barriers and viewpoints.”
A fascinating visual document that tries to unite and heal the wounds of a population still scared by interethnic conflicts.
Aline Deschamps
Aline Deschamps is a journalist, photographer, and a cultural project manager working in Paris and Bangkok.
Günter Pfannmüller et Wilhelm Klein, In search of Dignity
9th Yangon Photo Festival
Yangon, Burma
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