I’m delighted that several of my images from Järvenjää/Lakeice are included in the exhibition ‘In Their Company’ as part of the Carlisle Photo Festival, 2013. Runs from the 15th to 21st April. For more information please visit their website.
Happy International Women’s Day especially to all those amazing women I have met on my travels in Laos.
A photo of my Järvenjää/Lakeice work on show at Galleria Ratamo in wonderful Jyväskylä. Seeing our diverse responses to our exchange with the Finnish artists finally on show together makes me want to do the residency all over again! The new gallery looks great!
Thanks Art Connections, Arts Council England and everyone in Finland who made it possible.
My Finnish series Järvenjää/Lakeice will be on show from tomorrow as part of the Innostaa/Inspire exhibition at Woodend Art Gallery in Scarborough during the Coastival festival.
Just arrived back from a few days up north. First went back to Ban Na Mor to see the market and its seasonal products, there were a few new and different things including a scary giant mole. But the dominant product by far was Nor Khom – the bitter bamboo shoot.
Forest foods are still very important for the mainly rural population of the Lao PDR and many local people consider edible bamboo shoots to be the most important product of all. While most bamboo shoots are harvested and consumed in the rainy season (May-September), the species Indosasa sinica (bitter…
Pleased that my work has been included in the Art Photo Index a searchable, visual database of work by selected photo-based artists from throughout the world.
A belated Happy New Year from Myanmar! Woke up to the novice monks chanting at Htee Tein monastery on New Years morning.
I’m delighted to be showing my work Järvenjää/Lakeice – on Photomonitor this month.
Heading off for a family holiday to Myanmar today (with a couple of photo ideas to recce!) Yangon – Kalaw – Inle Lake – Bagan – Mt Popa – Yangon. New Years Eve at a monastery! Excited. Back on Jan 10th. No idea where or when I might have internet or mobile phone access.
Returned last Saturday from an exhausting week in Phongsaly, partly this exhaustion was due to the rough and dusty roads and partly everything else involved with photographing people in a foreign land. For this part of my project I am looking for women still making and wearing their traditional clothing (or part of it) on a daily basis – in particular growing, processing and weaving cotton. For a start its not easy to find out the right time of year to be there and even at the ‘right’ time it varies so much from village to village.
As there was…
Tomorrow I’ll be heading off to Phongsaly Province for a week – flying on the scary small plane again and this time heading up to some remote villages by motorbike….
I’ll have no access to email but you can contact me on my Lao mobile: +856(0)2058 646100
Images from my series Järvenjää/Lakeice were published in Lonely Planet Traveller, December 2012.
I’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 Laos the…
Just 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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After 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.
Today, 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…
Spent yesterday dropping off photos back at the Hmong village in Vientiane Province I visited last month and photographed the rice harvest there too.
It’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…