Artwork: Min Ma Naing, Faces of Change: Research consultant, 28 2022
inkjet print of Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl photo paper, 63 x 43 cm
Min Ma Naing is an established documentary photographer who was based in Yangon until 2021. In response to the military coup she has since relocated. Naing began her career as a press photographer completing short-term assignments. Her self directed photography evolved into her primary profession and she now documents stories of interest. Naing’s works discuss themes of social justice, political unrest and human transition. Her photographs are often complimented by the use of text, photobooks and art objects to add further layer and meaning.
Think About/Discuss:
Min Ma Naing’s works Faces of Change draw tribute to the ordinary individuals who, in unison, participated in protests against the military coup, known as the Spring Revolution. Her practice dives deeper into the diversity of experience of the coup; those who fight for gender rights, for ethnic or religious reason, or for freedom and transparency. Faces and stories captured in her series celebrate their bravery and active contribution to the demand for change in their country’s history. While the images that saturate the media can bring awareness to the experience, it is practices such as Min Ma Naing’s that expose a more complex and layered reality.
Across history, many artists and photographers have humanised the experience of war, civil unrest and violence by using the human figure, particularly the portrait. In these instances, mundanity and social practise are used to create ‘a face’, evoking an emotional connection, calling to action and bringing awareness of events to a wider audience. In the early nineteenth century, for example, Francisco Goya captured the unbearably frank depiction of the political unrest between the Spanish resistance to Napoleon’s invasion with his painting The Third of May 1808 (1814). In 1936, photographer Dorothea Lange captured her iconic image Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, introducing Florence Owns Thompson as the face of America’s Great Depression.
Compare Min Ma Naing’s practise with any of the following:
Eddie Adams, General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon (1968)
August Sander, People of the 20th Century series (1928)
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California (1936)
Tracey Moffat
Eugenia Lim
Paintings and photographs affiliated with #Georgefloyd (2020 – current)
Liu Heung Shing, Couple on a bicycle take cover beneath an underpass as tanks deploy overhead during the Tiananmen Square protests (1989)
