imagine that

Travel photo assignments differ, even when they’re on the same general topic.

I also recommend bringing a clean plastic garbage bag and a few rubber bands, in case you are caught in the rain and have a camera in your bag. I went to Myanmar during their water festival in April, and was doused with water from a fire truck hose—but my camera equipment stayed dry inside a garbage bag I tied together with rubber bands.

Ironically, on a Sunday, I am surrounded by idols. The natural cave at Shew Oo Min, in Pindaya, has around 8000 Buddha figures brought here by pilgrims. Walking barefoot through the cave, on a cold wet floor, I glance at the inscriptions. Many of the pilgrims who have brought in Buddha figures or donated paint [...]

“Give money for blood for baby,” the woman carrying the child says to me at the Schwezigon Pagoda. Bare feet hurting from small pebbles on the ground as I walk, I turn away from her. If I hide my face, maybe she’ll turn away, too. She follows me. “Give money for blood for baby.” The [...]

On a hot day in the beginning of the rainy season, temperatures in Myanmar can go up to 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit). Baking in the midday heat in Mandalay, at the Buddhist University, waiting for the monks to walk to lunch from classes, it feels like I should have brought the umbrella that is [...]

A Closeup of Life in Yangon Her hair has gotten so dry. She ties it in a ponytail most days with a plain rubber band, out of the way, for the times when she is at work taking tourists to Schwedagon Pagoda. The sunset at Schwedagon Pagoda, called a paya in Burmese, never fails to [...]

I travel so that I can collect you. Like a book of old stamps, the photos I have taken and the journal entries I’ve scribbled in the pages bearing coffee rings and beer stains flip through my days of being a vulture–a traveler who collects days not mine. I gawk at you and take your [...]

“She’s not that nice, but she is quite interesting,” says John, introducing me to a girl he knew who wanted to be a model. He is kidding. Of course. She has asked me if we can collaborate on her portfolio, and I right away say I didn’t have time; I am leaving for Myanmar in [...]