Burmese Shadows: Twenty-Five Years Reporting on Life Behind the Bamboo Curtain

Covering 25 years, Burmese Shadows is an unprecedented body of work which highlights, with stunning photographs, the reality of living and fighting for survival for ordinary people in Burma. These harsh realities, however, are juxtaposed against the vibrant and rich traditions and cultures which combine to make the enigmatic country that is Burma. Few other illustrated titles can provide such a deep and broad picture of Burmese life and politics. Highlights include his photographs of Aung Sang Su Kyi, the ethnic armies and tribal warlords, interviews with the legendary opium baron Khun Sa and his unparalleled access to the Free Burma Rangers, a force of humanitarian commandos living in the Black Zones, where the Burmese army operate a shoot-on-sight policy. The author has spent one month with the Rangers every year since 1999. No other journalist has had such access. The publication is timely due to the recent elections in Burma after almost fifty years of control by the country’s junta and the release of the democracy icon Aung Sang Su Kyi and her subsequent election to the lower house of the Burmese parliament.