The 6th Yangon Photo Festival
Presided over by Aung San Suu Kyi, Dedicated to Love and Kindness
Today, the city of Yangon, formerly Rangoon, has a photography festival. The Yangon Photo Festival, like the Angkor Photo Festival, was founded by French photographer Christophe Loviny, who is also behind the Cambodian festival.
The sixth edition of the Yangon Photo Festival opened on January 28th and will close on February 28th. For the third year in a row, the festival is being overseen by Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has paid dearly for her tireless fight for freedom.
The event is being held at the French Institute of Burma. The festival’s workshops and exhibitions have been organized around the theme “Metta, the path to peace.”
Ten foreign photographers were invited to present their work: Fausto Podavini, winner of the World Press Photo Award; Xavier Zimbardo; Marc Roussel, with his series about a French doctor in Syria; Frank Vogel and his Bishnoi; Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk presenting his “call to altruism”; Soe Zeyatun and Minzayan with photographs asking the public whether or not war is religious; Mayco Nao; Ana Galan; Yan Changyiang, whose report on “paper pilgrims” was selected by the curator Jean Loh; and the famous scrapbook of Gilles Caron. This is the first exhibition of his work in Asia, at the gates of Cambodia, where he disappeared in 1970.
Marjolaine Caron, the photographer’s daughter, spoke about her father on February 13th. Every night, the Burmese public is invited to the gardens of the French Cultural Institute for a seminar or projection in the presence of the invited photographers.
The sixth edition of the Yangon Photo Festival will conclude with a national competition on the theme “Metta,” for which all types of photographs will be accepted, including those taken on smartphones, popular among Burmese youth.
“Metta” is the Buddhist concept of love and kindness. In the land of smiles, what could be an easier theme?
