A Month In Burma
Sara Heinrichs (awfulsara)
Written by: Marya Figueroa
This Sunday, July 2nd, our own Sara Heinrichs (nee AwfulSara), will have her first photography show at the Nautical Bean Café in San Luis Obispo, CA. Called One Month in Burma, the photographs show the people that Sara met on her solo trip to South East Asia.
Sara’s trip began in December, 2004, just weeks before the tsunami would devastate coastlines and communities. Dividing her time between Thailand and Myanmar, it was the latter that became the highlight of her trip as she explored Burmese villages and met the Burmese people. Myanmar quickly became her muse as Sara shot the local environs and inhabitants, seeming to capture an inner, secret beauty that might evade the lens of a typical tourist. Sara’s photos bring out an intimacy, an openness, and an expansiveness elusive to most photographers.
“How do you do it?†I asked Sara a day shortly after she returned from her trip. She’d come over to my house with Tamarind candies, photos still in her camera, and stories that could span many hours.
“You know, I don’t know,†she told me. “I’m just friendly. I approach people. I smile at them.â€
Sara talked about her distaste for manipulative photojournalism that exploits people and places for the photographer’s gain. “I hate that,†she told me. “I’d rather just be friendly and try to get a real smile from a child rather than move them to a certain spot in the road and have them reenact an emotion over and over again.â€
Once Sara befriended the village children she found that the parents were quick to come around. She would snap a photo and then let the mother or the child see the image in her camera’s screen. “As soon as they saw their photo their smiles would get even larger. Almost always they would let me take another photo. Soon I’d have tons of kids just following me around the town.â€
Sara’s trip was also littered with misfortune. She was robbed of almost all her money. She was ran off a road while riding a motorbike. She broke ribs. She broke a lens. She broke a camera. Yet, with every bad turn came a helping hand, a new friend, and an open door. I like to chalk this up to Sara’s approach to photographing people, which is also her approach to life. She is friendly. She is interested. She is open. And she is ready, with camera in hand.
For those of you who have appreciated Sara’s photos online, you will be amazed seeing the photos enlarged and in print. Depth gets deeper. Colors get more vibrant. Things you might have missed on your small screen become little points of interest that you can’t believe you hadn’t seen before. I’m never disappointed when I see Sara’s photographs in print. In fact, I believe it’s made me appreciate her photography even more.
SHOW DETAILS:
The Photography of Sara Heinrichs
Nautical Bean Espresso Cafe, 11560 Los Osos Valley Rd, San Luis Obispo, CA
July 2 through July 31, 2006
Publisher’s Note: Almost exactly a year ago, on June 23, 2005, Utata (fresh and new then) blogged Sara with this announcement: “Sara Heinrichs, who goes by the completely inappropriate nickname “awfulsara” on Flickr is presenting a portfolio and interviewing for a corporate photography assignment. We’ve already given her all the advice we can – now the best we can do is wish her luck. Good luck, Sara! ”
We’re pleased and proud to make this announcement, almost exactly a year later. As we said then … Go Sara Go!
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, catherinejamieson and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
