Portraits of Yangon (1).

Yangon’s visit to look for portraits to photograph starts from the Sule Sangri-la hotel in the city center where I have an appointment with Michael, a street specialist from Yangon, who knows all the faces of this city.

Basically the idea is that Michael puts in confidence the people I would like to portray and that for my part I frame and triggers the photo at the best possible time. The advantage is that these portraits will be easier to achieve with the consent of the interested parties.

First step, in front of the rolling buffet of a young 24-year-old street vendor who offers fresh fish and octopus cooked with corn and peanuts. This young man working alone says he has a net income of about $ 120 / day.

Which is a good income for this type of activity. He does not pay a fee to park in the street between two cars. Her neighbor next door trailer announces a more modest net income of about $ 30 / day. She sells spicy vegetables that I resist without problem. Beside her a newspaper vendor who is spread out on a large table,

shy, he says nothing and observes, lending himself without problem to the “games” of photo-portrait. Beside him a security guard game Zin Min flips through a newspaper watching us amused.

Then we go up the street Bo Soon Pat Street starting from the street corner with that of Bo Gyoke Road making regular stops in front of street vendors or small food shops. We pass a woman in blue who lends with some reluctance to the photo and who is not very friendly with a smile.

A few monks who have finished the day’s quest gather the offerings to bring back the fruit of their harvest to the monastery.

Then we linger in front of a walking glasses who is sitting in front of the entrance of his shop next to the red wooden staircase that goes upstairs.
He has a sweet smile and an Indian guy. He inspires me with confidence and I will gladly give him the good God without confession. The bookseller next door also agrees to pose with a tired look of a day without surprise. That it is photographed, it completely indifferent. We stop further in front of a saleswoman dressed in purple pink who sells various fries exposed on a red table plastic. She is not an easy client for the photo-portrait and the party promises to be difficult to obtain from her her best smile with consent.

She even looks anxious, but Michael knows how to do it and by dint of patience manages to convince her to play the game and agree to pose for posterity.

Two kids next door who are much more cooperative and a little shy laugh at the situation. The little girl in red with her face well protected by tanaka. She is really adorable with childlike carefree.

We arrive at another frying booth with a woman who shows us a newspaper article that was dedicated to her with her full-page portrait! The barber next door is not distracted and continues to shave, imperturbable, his client. We arrive at a stand consisting of a simple basket on its support. His Indian-type owner with a recognizable sign of a big button over a nostril, has a very expressive and kindly look.

These people are at once the heart and the spirit of this city here as much as elsewhere. If cities have a soul it is simply through these people that this soul exists and continues. Many of the people photographed during this walk were hesitant to see refusing to be photographed at the first approach. But this reluctance came mainly from embarrassment and shyness to share their image.