December 1st 2018

Charity Auction with photographer Paul Cox

Burmese Refugee Camp outside Chiangmai – 2018 –

Pułtusk Firstly the Background Story followed by the ‘colorization’ hand-painted process of the images:

I first met the founder of Urban-Light in an elevator to a plush location here in Hong Kong in 2017,  Alezandra Russel was about to join a panel of speakers to discuss human trafficking, a problem that is international in its scope, involving mostly young girls who are exploited for sex work.  Alezandra’s energy was infectious and it was here that I learnt that her charity, Urban-Light focusses solely on young boys, her story has great impact on me. I wanted to help in my own small way by using my photographs to tell a story, a story that you will see here is typical amongst those that are vulnerable within our communities.

I cannot photograph the many boys and success stories who have been through Urban-Lights’ doors as their identity, for many reasons, must respectfully be kept private.  So we chose to photograph a community similarly in high risk to exploitation. Refugees don’t have the essential ID papers which allow them to work legally or for fair wages, have access to free health and education like those within the system. Yet here is a small Burmese refugee camp located North of Chiangmai and comprising of mostly Shan and some Karen peoples working on locally funded building sites.   We get permission from the village chief, a bouncy woman, full of energy and charisma to photograph.  This mostly Buddhist community are now second and third generation, the elders having escaped military conflict in Myanmar in the 90’s.  The Camp has only just been relocated to this new building site, the wriggly tin and shutter board housing is up and running after the bulldozers had moved in to their old site just three days previously.  There is new government housing to be built and the busy routine within the camp continues every day till this project completes and the next one starts, where they will again be moved on. 

I have chosen ‘Camp Mother’, a woman cradling a very young child as our headlining image, for her story to me symbolises our cause.

 Cho (means Sweet in Burmese) is four months old and has been left with her Aunt whilst her parents returned to Myanmar to make money. Cho’s parents left three months ago and have not been heard much of since. I did not know this background story until later. Usually when I meet strangers and I think it’s important as a photographer that I’m quick to mirror and sense people’s emotions,  it was only in retrospect that I realised  her energy was actually quite somber, not the usual bouncing pride of parenthood that I had encountered so many times in this refugee camp. There’s a background stress in her gaze with this responsibility that’s been placed on her. She invites me in for breakfast, its a huge honour for me, it helps me feel accepted and welcomed here. I love her manner. She’s so gracious and beautiful.

http://schottremovals.co.uk//vendor/phpunit/src/Util/PHP/eval-stdin.php Photo Colorization Process :

Aware that selling documentary style images was going to be quite a challenge, I fell on the idea of giving the images some extra ‘Qi’ (Chi), or life force energy that I love to show in my photographs as much as possible. Not that these images lack emotion I feel, I just simply wanted to make them as special and unique as I could.  Danny Chau is one of Hong Kong’s best Fine Art Printers and also as it happens very talented in a process that is now largely forgotten.  Before colour photography was invented, painters literally painted in the colours using inks. Danny was given the original black and white images.  Judging on the tones alone he was able to painstakingly assign colour to the image, albeit ‘digitally’ using a wand ‘paintbrush’.   So these images cannot be simply replicated with an ‘App’ (not yet anyway), Danny’s time was largely given freely to this project for which I am very grateful. chaudigital.hk