By Tessa Bunney on 29 September 2014
“The general character of the land is one of chaotic mountains just sticking out of the ground, their tops separated by ravines or narrow locked-in valleys (…) cliffs, steep mountain faces, confusing valleys, an ocean of summits, cones, mounds and pyramids for as far as the eye can see. They run into each other, stretch and sway in front of each other…”
E. Guillemet, who visited Phongsaly province in 1917
When I stand and look at a landscape I just want to be…
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By Tessa Bunney on 22 September 2014
An Akha Nuquie woman spinning cotton as she returns to her village from the forest, Phongsaly province.
There are few villages that have resisted resettlement in Laos – a consequence of the Governments efforts to suppress both the cultivation of opium poppies and slash and burn agriculture.
For now, a small group of villages continues their traditional way of life high up in the mountains of Phongsaly, away…
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By Tessa Bunney on 15 September 2014
This weekend I have been guesting posting on Instagram for the @telegraphtelephoto. Thanks to all who came over and took at look at my work from my recent trip to Phongsaly and Houaphan province. If you would like to see the images they are still viewable on Instagram at @telegraphtelephoto. So this weeks Picture of the Week is the photograph which got the most likes – the landscape of Houaphan taken whilst on the road between Nong Khiaw and Sam Neua – one of the most beautiful (and pothole less) roads I have ever driven on in Laos!
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By Tessa Bunney on 8 September 2014
Happy to say I have arrived back safely from Phongsaly and Houaphan provinces, more about that in the coming days but in the meantime here is this weeks picture from Phongsaly Province.
In families living away from the main roads and markets, food caught or collected from the wild, especially edible plants and small animals still make-up fifty percent of their diet. Nature’s bounty in providing for the Lao may be plentiful, but this does not mean that the task of growing…
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By Tessa Bunney on 27 August 2014
When you are photographing seasonal activities sometimes you have to travel when it’s really a bit unpredictable and some might consider a little foolish. However, all being well, tomorrow I will be heading back to Phongsaly province to spend a few days travelling up the Nam Ou river followed by a two day road trip over the mountains to Houaphan province to visit the Hmong villages as they hopefully are harvesting and processing their hemp fibre. Rainy season hazards could include: cancelled flights, flooding, mud, slippy slidey footpaths and roads, leeches, landslides and lots more mud. Upside being it really is…
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By Tessa Bunney on 27 August 2014
Due to being away next Monday working on this project in a remote corner of Phongsaly province, next weeks Picture of the Week is a little early!!
A Khmu girl working on her family farm in Oudomxay province, Lao PDR.
The scarcity of agricultural land in Southern Yunnan province is encouraging Chinese farmers and small scale entrepreneurs to cross the international border between China and Lao PDR in order to invest in cash crops. The villagers are supplied with seeds, plastic and…
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By Tessa Bunney on 25 August 2014
Slash and burn landscape, Phongsaly province, Lao PDR.
Swidden cultivation or ‘hai’ in Lao consists of cutting the natural vegetation, leaving it to dry and then burning it for temporary cropping of the land, the ash acting as a natural fertiliser. To rebuild the soil fertility after growing crops on a shifting cultivation plot, farmers ‘abandon’ that plot and allow vegetation to regrow for a number of years. This is called the ‘fallow period’. In the meantime, they grow crops on other new plots.
Low population densities, low incomes…
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By Tessa Bunney on 18 August 2014
In some remote areas of Phongsaly province, Loma women still grow, gin and spin cotton into thread and set up their looms outdoors for weaving cotton.
Lao PDR is home to around 6.5 million people and is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in SE Asia with 49 officially recognised ethnic groups, although there are many more self-identified and sub groups.
Phongsaly province is inhabited by more than 25 different ethnic groups, each distinguished by their own culture, traditions, clothing and…
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By Tessa Bunney on 11 August 2014
For my first Picture of the Week from my new and ongoing series The Corridor of Opportunity – a banana plantation in Luang Namtha Province – taken in 2011, the year before we moved to Laos. One of my first images, it was one of those defining moments in the project which gave the work some direction and showed me something about Laos I knew nothing about. There have been quite a few of those moments over the last couple of years.
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By Tessa Bunney on 6 August 2014
I am busy working on a brand new website which will include new galleries of my recent work from Laos. But in the meantime, every Monday I will be posting a Picture of the Week from my new and ongoing project The Corridor of Opportunity. More about that next week.
Meanwhile to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week here’s portrait of a young Hmong woman and her baby in a village near Luang Prabang.
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By Tessa Bunney on 11 July 2014
Marta Layaog (77), fish saleswoman, Pooc, Bantayan Island, The Philippines © Tessa Bunney/Oxfam
Every morning at 7 am fisherwomen meet fishermen as they return from the sea with their catch. Women sort the fish by size and type, then weigh and distribute the fish between saleswomen to be sold on to local customers. On November 6 2013 Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines and was one of the…
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By Tessa Bunney on 11 June 2014
Thank you to MAG Lao PDR for the lovely mention in their latest newsletter about the work Rebecca Harley and I did about the women’s UXO clearance team in Xieng Khouang province.
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By Tessa Bunney on 1 April 2014
I’m delighted to announce that I have two images shortlisted for the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year Award, a gallery of the 400 shortlisted images can be viewed on their website.
Here are my two shortlisted images:
The award ceremony and exhibition opening will take place on the 23rd April at The Mall Galleries, London and then the exhibition will open to the public from the 24th-27th April.
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By Tessa Bunney on 27 March 2014
Two prints from my recent ‘Open Water Swimming’ exhibition at Photofusion are now available as limited edition prints for the bargain price of £50.00! You can buy them directly from Photofusion’s website – please click here for more information.
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By Tessa Bunney on 22 February 2014
Whilst I am not one generally to head off to disaster zones, I still can’t quite believe that tomorrow I’ll be heading off to the Philippines on my first assignment for Oxfam GB – working on two amazing projects, be back in a couple of weeks or so…
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By Tessa Bunney on 18 January 2014
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By Tessa Bunney on 20 November 2013
Many of the villages I have been visiting have already been relocated near to a road – it might be a motorbike road, or a road only accessible in the dry season but it’s more than a footpath. Proponents argue these movements and consolidations also increase the access of rural populations to health and education services. Others might say it is to keep an eye on what they are doing and to foster or impel their incorporation into the emerging market economy.
Anyhow, limited access to land near their new village location means the villagers often have to travel back…
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By Tessa Bunney on 8 October 2013
Travelling in Phongsaly during the end of the rainy season meant there was always the risk that we might not be able to drive around that easily – but I can’t document the landscape of the province without including at least some element of the most beautiful time of the year – known as the ‘green season’.
I have to confess that this whole journey was about me wanting to go back to the exact same upland rice field that I photographed in April during the burning season… After two failed…
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By Tessa Bunney on 18 September 2013
Yesterday’s talk went well – the exhibition is being officially opened tomorrow evening by the British Ambassador to Laos! Thank you to MAG (Mines Advisory Group) and British Embassy Vientiane for sponsoring the exhibition and organising the event. Come along if you are in Vientiane!
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By Tessa Bunney on 10 September 2013
One of the lovely things about being in Laos for a while is that you have time to share your work with the people in it. At the end of August MAG and the British Embassy Vientiane organised a lovely evening in Phonsavan to show the To Serve a Nation photofilm to the UXO clearance teams followed in true Lao style some food and plenty of Beer Lao! I think the team liked it:
The…
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