Lonely Planet Traveller, December 2012
By Tessa Bunney on 13 December 2012Images from my series Järvenjää/Lakeice were published in Lonely Planet Traveller, December 2012.
Christmas promotion of Järvenjää/Lakeice
By Tessa Bunney on 12 December 2012I’ve currently got a Christmas and New Year promotion of my recent artists book Järvenjää/Lakeice. Now available for only £12.99 (plus P&P)!
Järvenjää / Lakeice – signed copies225 x 180mm, 36 pages, 13 colour photographsShort story by Riikka Ala-HarjaPrinted on a digital indigo 5000on Monadnock Astrolite SmoothHoused in a screen-printed pvc walletDesign: Nikie Marston Limited edition of 250
Special Offer for Christmas and New YearPrice: £15.50 now £12.99 + £1.50 p&p
You can purchase this directly from my publications page. Please note that while I am still in…
Looking for cotton and finding it
By Tessa Bunney on 1 December 2012Just got back from another few days up North – this time in Luang Prabang and Oudomxay provinces. The first 3 days I spent with Emi Weir from Artisans du Mekong where we visited several Tai Lue villages that they buy their cotton products from to document the cotton production process. We are planning a small exhibition in their wonderful gallery in Ban Nong Xai – the area known locally as ‘the paper village’ just across the Nam Khan river from Luang Prabang.
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Back from Xieng Khouang Province
By Tessa Bunney on 19 November 2012After 10 days collecting the most incredible moving stories from the people of Xieng Khouang Province, we have returned safely to Vientiane.
Xieng Khouang is the most heavily bombed province in the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world.
Thanks once again to MAG for their assistance and in particular to our outstanding translator Long.
Xieng Khouang Province
By Tessa Bunney on 9 November 2012Today, after months of planning, organising, stressing and fund raising, I am finally heading back to Xieng Khouang Province to work on the part of my project which explores the effect of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) on the rural population of Laos. I’m working in collaboration with the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and my friend and colleague Rebecca Harley on a new photofilm and an editorial feature as well as add to my growing collection of images about rural Lao women.
We will be back in Vientiane on the 18th of November but may not have email access during the time…
Back to the flatlands
By Tessa Bunney on 26 October 2012Spent yesterday dropping off photos back at the Hmong village in Vientiane Province I visited last month and photographed the rice harvest there too.
Back in the hills
By Tessa Bunney on 24 October 2012It’s a long time since I have felt a little bit apprehensive about the actual process of travelling but the thought of this small plane did make me feel a bit like ‘what am I doing!?’ However, the amazing view as we flew over northern Laos more than made up for any small fears!
I then spent the next two days travelling around Boun Tai district of Phongsaly Province bouncing along dusty roads at breakneck speed in some of the most fascinating landscape in Laos that I…
Heading for Phongsaly
By Tessa Bunney on 19 October 2012As I had to postpone my planned trip to Phongsaly Province until later this year, I decided this weekend to take a short 4 day trip there just so that I don’t miss seeing the October landscape and harvest completely. Described as one of Lao’s remotest provinces, Phongsaly is dominated by rugged, mountainous terrain and an abundance of thick forests and fast-flowing rivers. The population is made up of officially 28 different ethnic groups and Phongsaly town is the highest city in Laos at 1400 m above sea level. It would probably take 3 days each way to drive there…
Fishing
By Tessa Bunney on 24 September 2012Sometimes on the way back from a village or other destination and there’s a bit of time free, I often stop off at a roadside village to have a look around. To be honest there is normally something of interest going on, but sometimes the village is hot, dusty and virtually deserted except for a few mothers and babies as most people are away from the village working on the fields. Last Monday was one such day, we called in at a Tai Lue village, a short walk from the road side. After wandering around for 20 minutes or so…
Cucumbers and bamboo rats
By Tessa Bunney on 21 September 2012I don’t know if it’s just because in the UK I live in the hills but I have been instantly attracted to the hills and mountains of Laos and the minorities who live there such as the Hmong and Akha.
The last few days however I have been staying at a Tai Dam (Black Thai) village in Oudomxai Province about 300 km north of Luang Prabang. Tai Dam villages are spread through numerous fertile valleys in the mountainous parts of Laos and Ban Na Mor is no exception.
Ban Na Mor market…
Morning market
By Tessa Bunney on 12 September 2012As I had a ‘free’ day in Luang Prabang today, I decided to set up my portable studio in my room and head off to the morning market to pick up a few things to photograph. A little practice for later on this week when I will be heading up north to the Tai Dam (Black Thai) village of Ban Nam Mor where I am hoping to set up my light in the market and photograph everything. I’ve stopped at this market a few times on my up north and it takes local food to the extreme! I hear the…
Ban Kok Wa
By Tessa Bunney on 6 September 2012Today we went to visit Ban Kok Wa village and bumped into Ya Lee who we met at the night market earlier this week. Ya’s family relocated from Ban Long Lan more than 10 years ago when her oldest son Sai was 2 or 3 years old.
Sai is studying to be a tour guide in Luang Prabang and speaks excellent English.
Ban Long Lan
By Tessa Bunney on 6 September 2012So yesterday we made a trip to Ban Long Lan, a village in the mountains about an hour and half away from Luang Prabang where many of the Hmong women I met this week originally came from. I had been warned that the road would be bumpy and muddy and we may not actually get there given the recent rain. However, the road whilst steep and windy in places did not have a pot hole in sight having been recently fixed. Not a particularly good day for views but this gives an idea of the journey through the mountains.
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In and around Luang Prabang
By Tessa Bunney on 4 September 2012Yesterday I arrived in Luang Prabang to be artist-in-residence at the wonderful Project Space. It’s lovely to be back here. I’m sitting in my room in the gallery with the fan on full blast at 10pm – it hasn’t rained today and it is still so HOT, I swear my eyeballs are sweating!!
As a start to my project about the relocation of villages, at times a somewhat controversial issue in Laos, I spent today visiting Hmong minority villages around Luang Prabang with the aim of making portraits of the women who make and sell Hmong inspired items to tourists…
Today in Laos
By Tessa Bunney on 28 August 2012Just a quick blog post – I’m working on a well overdue longer post about my recent weeks in Laos.
Today I have been out looking for good locations to follow the slash and burn process for growing hill rice. It’s now the rainy season so everything is looking wonderfully green! The government in Laos is planning to ban this traditional practice by 2015. And met a family with a story to tell – the people you meet along the way can change everything.
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View from China
By Tessa Bunney on 4 August 2012One of the things I love about China is how they construct a massive wall to block the view from the road and then charge you 40.000 RMB (around £4.00) to go and have a look at it!
The World in London
By Tessa Bunney on 27 July 201227 July – 12 August 2012
The World in London celebrates London as a place where individuals from all parts of the world live side by side, each of them contributing to make London the unique city it is. The 204 portraits are being exhibited as large-scale posters in Victoria Park, East London, and in Ramillies Street’s pedestrian zone opposite The Photographers’ Gallery in the heart of Soho.
To find out more about the project, please click here.
Commissioned by The Photographers’ Gallery in London, it was my pleasure to meet and photograph Mr Thanh Khanh Vu who…
China
By Tessa Bunney on 23 July 2012Today we are flying to Kunming and spending 10 days travelling to Dali and further north to “Shangri-La” – back on 2nd August. Will have limited access to the internet so if you need to contact me urgently please use my UK mobile +44 (0)7850 740254.
Picture of the Week # 1 – Cormorant fisherman
By Tessa Bunney on 21 July 2012So we have already been in Laos for a week and I have yet to get out the ‘serious’ camera, we have been settling in, chilling out and getting practical things done. Before I came I read this somewhere: The evolution of a documentary project is a journey in itself. And this project sure has already been one of those.
As Noah doesn’t start school until August, next week we are taking a family holiday to Yunnan Province in China, the roots of this project, retracing part of my previous trips and going further up north towards Sichuan and Tibet.
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Laos – follow the journey
By Tessa Bunney on 11 July 2012The evolution of a documentary project is a journey in itself.
I am pleased and excited to let you know that on 12 July I will be heading off to live in Lao PDR for around 8 months with my family. We will be based in the capital city, Vientiane, however as well as photographing in and around there I will be travelling around the country working on my long term project Field, Forest and Family.
In September, I…