Local Photographer Captures Myanmar’s Fleeting Freedom in Exhibit
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
The 2021 brutal military coup in Myanmar killed an estimated 50,000 people and displaced about three million, half of them children.
Before the coup, the country, formerly known as Burma, enjoyed a working democracy for 10 years after enduring more than five decades of repressive authoritarian rule. The welcomed democracy allowed people to live in their simple, traditional ways alongside the country’s gilded pagodas.
More recently antimilitary rebels have taken up arms against the current authoritarian regime. Although news images of the war-torn country have all but erased the memory of a free Myanmar, photographs taken in 2016 by local photographer Ron Hershey have preserved that memory and can be seen in an exhibit, “Through A Window Briefly Open: Myanmar 2016,” at the Ossining Public Library that opens on Saturday.
Hershey, who is also a Croton-on-Hudson-based acupuncturist, traveled to Myanmar when the country was open to travelers from the west. He went to Yangon, formerly Rangoon, the country’s largest city, and two smaller metropolitan areas, Hpa-An and Mawlamyine, where Rudyard Kipling lived and wrote his famous poem “Mandalay.”
Hershey captured the soul and spirit of the people during Myanmar’s short-lived democracy.
His poignant pictures of everyday life expand the perception of the people and the country, as Hershey encountered a person and asked to photograph them. He sought their trust, and was rewarded with gratitude.
You can see it on the painted faces of young women softly looking at the camera with a hushed innocence, a proud father holding his young child, capturing a carefree moment of quiet joy, and in the image of two young boys perched on concrete steps gazing directly into the lens with wonder.
Many of the faces reveal silky, pale painted circles, dots, squares or organic shapes, which is the art of face painting called thanaka, a centuries-old Myanmar tradition to protect the skin from the harsh sunlight. Made from tree bark, the paint is both cosmetic and protective.
Drawn to urban scenes, village life and portraiture, Hershey said his images now convey a different message from when he first shot them in 2016 due to the current turbulence and upheaval in the country.
“These photographs have a heightened lingering resonance in the wake of the subsequent brutal military coup that curtailed Myanmar’s nascent democratic movement and human rights,” Hershey noted. “When I was there, it was an other-worldly, un-globalized place with people just emerging from five decades of isolation from the rest of the world, curious about the west and westerners, incredibly friendly and warm.”
Hershey said throughout his trip he saw numerous posters of Aung San Suu Kyi, the woman who led the nation’s National League for Democracy and who has been imprisoned by the ruling military since 2021. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, Aung San Suu Kyi is considered a fallen human rights idol and a symbol of hope, only to be forcefully removed.
“Posters of her were everywhere, celebrating her as the hero of the democratic movement,” Hershey recalled. “Here is a country that struggled with establishing freedom and human rights after decades of repression, only to be knocked back down and stripped of those freedoms by an authoritarian regime.”
Other photographs engage visitors in glimpses of what had been everyday life. Hershey captured a woman mid-step, balancing a large tray of garlic and turmeric root on her head walking effortlessly on her way to the market. Another has a man carrying a loaded basket of fruit on one shoulder, his muscles bulging as he climbs a steep hill barefoot, his toes grabbing the hot, dry earth.
Stunning sunsets provide striking scenic views of dramatic mountains and serene waterways. A photograph of the great Shwedagon Pagoda, a famous tourist spot in Yangon, highlights the pagoda’s intricately ornate gold spires glistening above the marble-tiled plaza. Believed to be built in the sixth and 10th centuries, Shwedagon is considered the holiest Buddhist site in Myanmar and in the world.
“Through a Window Briefly Open Myanmar 2016” opens with a reception this Saturday, Jan. 4, from 2 to 4 p.m., and continues through Jan. 29 at the Ossining Public Library’s lower-level gallery during hours of operation.
The Ossining Public Library is located at 53 Croton Ave. in Ossining.
Abby is a local journalist who has reported on breaking news for more than 20 years. She currently covers community issues in The Examiner as a full-time reporter and has written for the paper since its inception in 2007. Read more from Abby’s editor-author bio here. Read Abbys’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/ab-lub2019/
