Borders: A Transnational Photography Project

Welcome to the Borders Photography blog.

The project this site represents is an attempt to examine the impact of forced migration on ethnic minority children from Burma. Using an anthropological approach that depends heavily on the use of art and photography, the project will address questions of personal, communal, regional, and national identity.

For more information about the project, or for examples of recent work created, please explore the linked pages below.

pages

About the Project
Community Interviews

"Where I'm From" Assignment
"My Community" Assignment
"Life Storybook" Assignment
"Thailand/Burma" Assignment
"Migration Map" Assignment

Photography Workshops
"Portrait" Assignment
"About My Home" Assignment
"About My Community" Assignment
"Sequence/Series" Assignment
"Moving Forward" Assignment

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  1. Assignment Three: “Life Storybooks”

    One of the challenges I’ve come up against in giving these basic drawing assignments is the general conception of art as some kind of specific skill or talent. Most of my students have only experienced art as something you either can, or can’t do- primarily because, from what they’ve told me, art classes at school are primarily for the most talented and the kids who aren’t the “best” artists don’t have much interest in them.

    What this means for my classes, is, even when the focus of the work is on what each student has to say (rather than the precision with which they can draw a certain thing) I still get a lot of:

    “I don’t know how to draw…” and “I can’t do it…”

    So, after noticing this attitude from the majority of my students, the third week we talked quite a bit about what it means to be an artist, who can make art, and why. One of the things I tried to stress was the idea that everyone has something important to say- as cliche as it sounds. Most of my students may not be “experts” on any specific aspect of art, and may not have a lot to say on any specific subject- but if there is one thing that they are “experts” about it is their own lives.

    With this in mind, this week’s assignment focused on telling the story of their own lives. As a group, we came up with a variety of topics they would like to respond to within the pages of the book, then we set to work creating the physical books and filling up the pages.

    Here is an example of what one of the finished books looked like:

    Cover Page Example

    The topics for each page are as follows:

    1. (Title Page).
    2. Where I was Born.
    3. My Home.
    4. Hy Heritage.
    5. My Friends and Family.
    6. Things I Like.
    7. Things I Dislike.
    8. The Best Thing About my Life.
    9. The Worst Thing About my LIfe.
    10. Things I Hope For.

    Obviously, with nine pages for each of my students, I have more results than would make sense to put on this blog. So, the next few posts will be a selection of responses for each themed page.

     
     

  2. Please see individual photos for captions.

    Assignment: Create a book that tells the story of your life.

    Above are two photos representing the first of eight thematic page (examples of the last two pages are on the previous post).

    The topics for each page are as follows:

    1. Title Page.
    2. Where I was Born.
    3. My Home.
    4. Hy Heritage.
    5. My Friends and Family.
    6. Things I Like.
    7. Things I Dislike.
    8. The Best Thing About my Life.
    9. The Worst Thing About my LIfe.
    10. Things I Hope For.

    More about the project: bordersphotography.tumblr.com/about

     
     

  3.  

    Please see individual photos for captions.

    Assignment: Create a book that tells the story of your life.

    Above are two photos representing the final two thematic pages (see last post examples of the first eight pages).

    The topics for each page are as follows:

    1. Title Page.
    2. Where I was Born.
    3. My Home.
    4. My Heritage.
    5. My Friends and Family.
    6. Things I Like.
    7. Things I Dislike.
    8. The Best Thing About my Life.
    9. The Worst Thing About my LIfe.
    10. Things I Hope For.

    More about the project: bordersphotography.tumblr.com/about

     
     
  4. A few themes have consistently appeared in the work of my students, regardless of where they are from or where the live now. One of those is their depictions of violence- primarily violence between the Burmese Army (also called the Tatmadaw) and ethnic insurgencies. This isn’t surprising, as the area I work in, while currently stable, existed as a ‘black zone’ under the Burmese Communist Party’s Hpyat lay hpyat (Four Cuts) Policy. Since the late 1960s, the civil war in Burma has been characterized by a counter-insurgency policy know as the ‘Four Cuts’. This strategy borrows elements from the pacification of Burma during the Third Anglo-Burmese War, from British practice in the Boer War and 1960s Malaya, and from the US military’s ‘strategic hamlets’ program in Vietnam. Under the Four Cuts policy, Tatmadaw units issue orders to villages in ‘black’ (rebel held) and ‘brown’ (contested) areas to relocate to government-controlled (‘white’) areas, usually with very little warning. Villagers’ erstwhile homes are designated ‘free-fire’ zones. The policy has at times amounted to a form of ethnic cleansing as vast areas of the Burmese countryside have been depopulated and civilians subjected to a range of human rights violations… There are Four Cuts, designed to undermine the rebels supply of recruits, to cut off their access to intelligence, food, finance (the undeclared fifth cut is said to be the insurgents decapitation). The idea is, as the Burmese proverb has it, ‘to drain the sea in order to kill the fish’. (from Ashley South’s Mon Nationalism and Civil War in Burma) The policy basically forced rural villagers to choose between three clear cut options: either to fight, flee, or join the Tatmadaw. In the region where my school is based, most villagers have decided to flee, and, as a result, many of my students grew up in close proximity to violence systematically undertaken by the government. While the policy was originally created in the 1960s, it is still at the foundation of the majority of strategic decisions made in regards to these ‘black’ or ‘brown’ areas. In March of this year, the policy was officially acknowledged and called back into practice, with minor adjustments. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Above is a drawing that was made by one of the students in my classes. The student is eleven years old and originally from Karen state. He captioned his picture as follows: “A Soldier is holding a gun to a student. The student is saying ‘Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! I’m scared.’ “ Below is an except from an interview I conducted with one of my students. The student’s name is removed for his safety and the safety of his fellow students. I can say that he is twelve years old and has been living and studying at my school since he was seven.   Below is the conversation that followed regarding his future hopes and dreams. Q: What do you want for your future? A: It is hard to say what my future will look like, but my mother wants me to become a teacher. As for me, though, I want to become a soldier. I want to become a soldier because I don’t like Burmese people. I would be a Karen soldier. Q: Why do you think it is important to fight for the Karen army? A: My father knew the area around my village very well. When I was young, he was a guide for the Karen Army. So when the Burmese army came, the took my father away and killed him because he had helped the Karen. One time, also, the Burmese army told my relatives to put three pieces of long (a traditional Burmese piece of cloth worn as a skirt) into his mouth, otherwise they would hit him with the handle of the gun. All of these kind of things happen to me and my family.

    A few themes have consistently appeared in the work of my students, regardless of where they are from or where the live now. One of those is their depictions of violence- primarily violence between the Burmese Army (also called the Tatmadaw) and ethnic insurgencies. This isn’t surprising, as the area I work in, while currently stable, existed as a ‘black zone’ under the Burmese Communist Party’s Hpyat lay hpyat (Four Cuts) Policy.

    Since the late 1960s, the civil war in Burma has been characterized by a counter-insurgency policy know as the ‘Four Cuts’. This strategy borrows elements from the pacification of Burma during the Third Anglo-Burmese War, from British practice in the Boer War and 1960s Malaya, and from the US military’s ‘strategic hamlets’ program in Vietnam. Under the Four Cuts policy, Tatmadaw units issue orders to villages in ‘black’ (rebel held) and ‘brown’ (contested) areas to relocate to government-controlled (‘white’) areas, usually with very little warning.

    Villagers’ erstwhile homes are designated ‘free-fire’ zones. The policy has at times amounted to a form of ethnic cleansing as vast areas of the Burmese countryside have been depopulated and civilians subjected to a range of human rights violations…

    There are Four Cuts, designed to undermine the rebels supply of recruits, to cut off their access to intelligence, food, finance (the undeclared fifth cut is said to be the insurgents decapitation).

    The idea is, as the Burmese proverb has it, ‘to drain the sea in order to kill the fish’.

    (from Ashley South’s Mon Nationalism and Civil War in Burma)

    The policy basically forced rural villagers to choose between three clear cut options: either to fight, flee, or join the Tatmadaw. In the region where my school is based, most villagers have decided to flee, and, as a result, many of my students grew up in close proximity to violence systematically undertaken by the government. While the policy was originally created in the 1960s, it is still at the foundation of the majority of strategic decisions made in regards to these ‘black’ or ‘brown’ areas. In March of this year, the policy was officially acknowledged and called back into practice, with minor adjustments.

    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Above is a drawing that was made by one of the students in my classes. The student is eleven years old and originally from Karen state. He captioned his picture as follows:

    “A Soldier is holding a gun to a student. The student is saying ‘Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! I’m scared.’ “

    Below is an except from an interview I conducted with one of my students. The student’s name is removed for his safety and the safety of his fellow students. I can say that he is twelve years old and has been living and studying at my school since he was seven.  

    Below is the conversation that followed regarding his future hopes and dreams.

    Q: What do you want for your future?

    A: It is hard to say what my future will look like, but my mother wants me to become a teacher. As for me, though, I want to become a soldier.

    I want to become a soldier because I don’t like Burmese people. I would be a Karen soldier.

    Q: Why do you think it is important to fight for the Karen army?

    A: My father knew the area around my village very well. When I was young, he was a guide for the Karen Army. So when the Burmese army came, the took my father away and killed him because he had helped the Karen.

    One time, also, the Burmese army told my relatives to put three pieces of long (a traditional Burmese piece of cloth worn as a skirt) into his mouth, otherwise they would hit him with the handle of the gun.

    All of these kind of things happen to me and my family.

     
     
  5. I have to apologize for my fully unintentional disappearance from this blog. The last two weeks have been filled with a continual cycle of problems with my passport and visa. I’ve spent the vast majority of my time sitting in plastic chairs waiting for my number to appear on an electronic sign above an angry immigration officer’s desk.  A full explanation would be quite long, and almost certainly boring, so let’s just put it this way: after three different cities, four different immigration offices, six buses, two trains, and countless cabs I am finally fully legal. Thank goodness. So with stacks of paperwork and quite a bit of frustration behind me, I’m happy to report that I have returned to my home and research site to continue with my work and will have more legitimate updates to post in the next few days. This evening I’m planning to post a few examples of information I’ve been gathering in my interviews with local community members, and closer to the end of the week I’ll be posting the results of the last assignment. Above you’ll see a picture of some of my students working on the last assignment.

    I have to apologize for my fully unintentional disappearance from this blog.

    The last two weeks have been filled with a continual cycle of problems with my passport and visa. I’ve spent the vast majority of my time sitting in plastic chairs waiting for my number to appear on an electronic sign above an angry immigration officer’s desk. 

    A full explanation would be quite long, and almost certainly boring, so let’s just put it this way: after three different cities, four different immigration offices, six buses, two trains, and countless cabs I am finally fully legal.

    Thank goodness.

    So with stacks of paperwork and quite a bit of frustration behind me, I’m happy to report that I have returned to my home and research site to continue with my work and will have more legitimate updates to post in the next few days. This evening I’m planning to post a few examples of information I’ve been gathering in my interviews with local community members, and closer to the end of the week I’ll be posting the results of the last assignment.

    Above you’ll see a picture of some of my students working on the last assignment.