It became a recurring thing, the Hmong “Lost Boys” coming up to us, and asking us to buy them shoes or pants. It’s a tough predicament to be in. On the one hand, just giving away money encourages life on the streets. Turn your back on the hungry, and of course it makes you feel bad for […]
Laos is one of the most beautiful and lush countries in all of Southeast Asia. Even though the people in the remote villages don’t have electricity or running water, or a very high standard of living, the earth provides so much, that there isn’t as much belly rumbling as in other parts of the world. […]
At the Consortium, we met Bounmi and Toumi. They were volunteers helping educate others on the dangers of UXO’s. Xieng Khouang province in Laos ranks second behind Savannakhet province in terms of contamination, but first in casualties, as well as having the dubious honor of having some of the poorest villages. From January to August […]
This was the site for a new preschool in Lathsene Village in Xieng Khouang province, part of a “Schools Not Bombs” campaign. The village is somewhat remote, past the plains of jars site one, and nestled in farmland and cornfields. The village has no electricity and the earthy pastureland smell hits you as you step […]
I got up early once again and decided to walk around Phonsavanh, Xieng Khouang. The town reminds me of an old Western, with its main road and hotels and stores on either side. I was told that this emerging city was where the locals moved to after the bombings 30 plus years ago. While strolling […]
I wanted to stay a bit longer to catch the sunset on the Plain of Jars, but next on the agenda was visiting an English learning school, run out of the house of a person I’d wanted to meet for a long time. I first found out about a Lao gentleman named Manophet through a […]
Looking back at the photos, I realized that the best images were the ones that didn’t focus solely on the jars, they were the ones of us. Most had never been to the plain of jars, only read about it. To this day archaeologists have no clue as to who made them. This area of Laos […]
It was a long day, but it ended nicely, with dinner at the hotel. FB asked me to translate for him while he caught up with his best friend, Mr. BL, a man whom he met back in the late 60’s, when FB was an educational advisor for the U.S. He was dismayed at the influx […]
Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise http://www.copelaos.org/
The latest fad with digital photography is geotagging. With simple software and hardware you can pinpoint exactly where and when you were on planet Earth, as you threw up gang signs in front of some far off location to impress your friends on the social networking sites. It was quite distressing to see the markers loaded up […]
Still wasn’t used to the jetlag, so I got up at 4:00am, Vientiane time. Had nothing better to do so I stepped out of the hotel and started walking to the That Luang Stupa, which is the national symbol of Laos. It was a somewhat long walk to the site, and at that hour of the night/morning, there was nobody on […]
The next day we visited the Lao Disabled Women’s Development Center. It was a place where women could use their skills, no matter their handicap, as well as learn new skills and earn some money creating handicrafts and gift products. There was however a young man, hunched over, working diligently on greeting cards in a […]
Vientiane (pronounced Vieng-Chun) is the capital city of Laos, and not overpopulated, probably having about 400,000 residents. Being drained from the plane ride, I only managed these shots before the day was over. It’s an interesting place. Some parts are still very poor, but the other modernized sections (with funding and aid from the Japanese and […]
It took me 14 hours to fly from Atlanta to Seoul, South Korea. I sat in the airport/mall for about 6 hours admiring their almost “clone” like society and their expensive toys. Then it was another 5 hour flight to Bangkok, Thailand. There I sat and just people watched in the airport for 12 hours. The following morning […]
Mina 2 | 18×24″ | Pen & Ink/CG
Royal Lao Classical Dancers Festival Lao Buddhist Temple of Nashville New Year Celebration May 25, 2008 | Antioch, TN With any dance performance you’d most likely want to capture it on video, but sadly the technology, even at HD resolutions, doesn’t have that same visual appeal to me that photographs have. The above video is of […]
Lao New Year 2551 (2008) | Wat Lao Pothisaram | Conley, GA For those of you whose photographic or cultural interest has been piqued by my photos, I do have to say that almost all of my work deals with beauty–the surface kind. It’s just a natural tendency of a creative person, or actually of anybody […]
Wat Lao Habersham New Year | Baldwin, GA | May 3, 2008
Of late I’ve been trumpeting the struggles of artists, but trying to promote respect for and a better understanding of my Laotian culture and heritage is also difficult. Laotian refers to the many groups of people from the small country of Laos (silent “S”). Lao refers to the main spoken and written language as well […]
Check out my work in Lao Roots Magazine. Based out of San Diego, CA, they provide articles on all sorts of Lao things. Betcha didn’t know there are Lao actors, Lao fashion designers, Lao skateboarders, and oh yeah, Lao artists…:)….REPRAZENT!
