By Tessa Bunney on 9 February 2015
With the wonders of technology I am able to write this post in advance and schedule it for posting several days later so by the time this is live I will already be in a remote village high in the mountains of Phongsaly province.
The last time I visited the remote Akha Nuquie village of Ban Chakhampa it was an hour bus ride from Phongsaly, an hour boat trip along the Nam Ou river and several hours steep hike from the river to the village. Now though, the village has a road courtesy of the Nam Ou Hydropower project so…
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By Tessa Bunney on 2 February 2015
In the past, the bulk of products collected or caught from the wild were used for family consumption, but nowadays a substantial proportion of products are sold in the markets for cash, taking value from local areas and nature to feed urban populations and international markets.
The women of the Tai Dam village of Ban Na Mor sell local products gathered from the fields and forests or grown in their own gardens – anything from cucumbers to bamboo rats, pineapples to barbecued frogs.
Ban Na Mor market is ideally situated on route 13 which goes to the border with China…
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By Tessa Bunney on 26 January 2015
The Cham, a Muslim community of around 39,000 people living along the coast of Central Vietnam are one of the 54 ethnic groups recognised by the Vietnamese government.
In villages in Central Vietnam, Cham girls usually in groups of around 5 (but always an uneven number), undergo a Karoh (maturity) ceremony, one of the most important ritual events of their lives and if it has not taken place, the girl cannot marry.
After a purification ritual,…
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By Tessa Bunney on 19 January 2015
Washing clothes in the Nam Ou river in the remote and roadless village of Ban Mouanghoun, Phongsaly province, Lao PDR.
In Laos, the 425km long Nam Ou river, one of the Mekong’s major tributaries, connects small riverside villages. It is a place where children play and families bathe, where men fish and women wash their clothes. But this river and others like…
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By Tessa Bunney on 12 January 2015
A Khmu woman smokes a homegrown cigarette in the remote and roadless village of Ban Nam Houn, Phongsaly province, Lao PDR.
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By Tessa Bunney on 9 January 2015
A little late especially as I am now back in Laos but recently returned from a wonderful 10 days travelling in Bhutan including a very cold night camping near Gasa Tsachu (hot spring) along with half of Bhutan!
At Gasa hot springs there are five pools with water temperature ranging from mild to extremely hot. During the winter months when farming work is done, families from all over Bhutan come here to relax in the restorative pools for many days.
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By Tessa Bunney on 22 December 2014
The Hmong ethnic minority in Laos belong to several different sub-groups – the remote mountain villages I have spent time in this year photographing their traditional hemp processing activities are Hmong Du (Black Hmong), Mong Njua (Green Mong) and Hmong Krua Ba (Striped Sleeved Hmong).
This week Hmong New Year is being celebrated in the Hmong Der (White Hmong) villages around Vientiane. No traditional hemp skirts here, the New Year costumes are modern, bright, colourful, synthetic and anything goes! Long, short, tight, loose, all colours of the rainbow, more variations of the traditional than you could ever imagine. And the…
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By Tessa Bunney on 15 December 2014
A Hmong woman splicing hemp in the remote and roadless village of Ban Chalern, Phongsaly province. In Lao PDR, hemp is now only cultivated by the Hmong in remote mountainous areas of the north. Ban Chalern will soon be relocated away from the Nam Ou river due to construction of the Nam Ou Cascade Hydropower Project Dam 7.
This week I’ll be spending a couple of days working with Passa Paa a cultural design collective in Luang Prabang – photographing their work using traditional hemp fabrics and Hmong patterns to “explore the…
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By Tessa Bunney on 12 December 2014
A Tai Dam woman from Vietnam working as a prostitute in a village close by to the Nam Ou Cascade Hydropower Project Dam 5 construction site, Phongsaly province, Lao PDR.
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By Tessa Bunney on 12 December 2014
This week’s Picture of the Week comes from the Muslim community of Van Lam in Central Vietnam where the Cham girls underwent a Karoh (maturity) ceremony – one of the most important ritual events of their lives.
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By Tessa Bunney on 28 November 2014
Midday prayers in the women’s prayer room in a Cham village from this weeks fabulous few days recce in south Vietnam.
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By Tessa Bunney on 21 November 2014
Very pleased to announce that two images from the Hand to Mouth series are currently on show as part of the ABOUT LAND: The Landscape In Contemporary Photography exhibition at Klompching Gallery in Brooklyn, NY.
‘Market’ from the series Hand to Mouth
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By Tessa Bunney on 17 November 2014
A view of the remote and roadless Laoseng village of Ban Mouangva showing the old and new villages, Phongsaly province, Lao PDR.
Recently temporarily relocated away from the Nam Ou river (a major tributary of the Mekong), Ban Mouangva will be joined with two other Laoseng villages following the construction of the Nam Ou Cascade Hydropower Project Dam 6.
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By Tessa Bunney on 10 November 2014
Ms Vanthone, metalworker casting bracelets made from recycled aluminium sourced from Vietnam War debris and melted in an earthen kiln in Ban Naphia, a remote Tai Phouan village in mountainous Xieng Khouang Province in Northern Laos.
Laos is the most bombed country, per capita, in the world with more than two million tons of ordnance dropped on it during the Vietnam War from 1963 to 1974.12 artisan families began transforming war scrap into spoons (150,000 per year) in the 1970s to supplement subsistence…
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By Tessa Bunney on 3 November 2014
A Khmu man repairs his fishing net in the remote and roadless village of Ban Kengvang, Phongsaly province, Lao PDR.
15 years ago, the village of Ban Kengvang relocated from the mountain to the banks of the Nam Ou river but will soon be temporarily relocated back up the mountain due to the construction of the Nam Ou Cascade Hydropower Project Dam 5.
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By Tessa Bunney on 27 October 2014
I recently travelled on a new stretch (for me) of the Nam Ou river from Hatsa downstream to Sampan, in Phongsaly province. The trip was quite remarkable, it always is, you never know what you will see, but this trip was particularly so.
In Phongsaly province there are at least 28 different ethnic groups out of the officially recognised 49 in Laos, each with their own cultures, traditions, costumes and languages. In the area north of Hatsa the villages are a mix of Hmong, Laoseng and Tai Lue. Along the Nam Ou south of Hatsa, there are many small roadless…
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By Tessa Bunney on 20 October 2014
Harvesting ‘khao kam’ (brown sticky rice) in the Hmong minority village of Ban Chalern, Phongsaly province, Lao PDR.
The Nam Ou river’s catchment is inhabited mainly by subsistence farmers practicing shifting cultivation on steep hills.
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By Tessa Bunney on 13 October 2014
A Tai Lue boy fishing in the Nam Lan river (a tributary of the Nam Ou), Phongsaly province, Lao PDR.
The 425km Nam Ou, one of the Mekong River’s major tributaries, connects small riverside villages and provides the rural population with food from fishing. It is a place where children play and families bathe, where men fish and women wash their clothes.
But this river and others like it, that are the lifeline of rural communities and local economies are…
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By Tessa Bunney on 3 October 2014
Afternoon at the Nam Ou riverside in the remote and roadless Laoseng minority village of Ban Phoumeuang, Phongsaly province, Lao PDR.
The 425 km long Nam Ou, one of the Mekong river’s major tributaries, connects small riverside villages and provides the rural population with food from fishing. It is a place where children play and families bathe, where men fish and women wash their clothes.
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By Tessa Bunney on 1 October 2014
Delighted that my portrait of Marta Layaog on Bantayan Island, The Philippines has been selected for the Portrait Salon exhibition, projection and publication. The publication and projection will launch on 6th November at Four Corners (London) and in Brighton in association with Miniclick. The print exhibition will open at White Cloth Gallery in Leeds on the same date and will then tour to Bradford, North Wales, Edinburgh, Bristol and Birmingham during 2014/15.
Six months after Typhoon Haiyan: Portrait of a Fishing Community – Bantayan Island
In Pooc every morning at…
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