Cameras for Asia ran two recent programs in Nepal. One was to the Children’s Welfare Centre and the other to the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation. Both are places I have visited before and here are excerpts from the recent report I drafted on these workshops:

Children’s Welfare Centre
A welcome return to the nation of high snow capped mountains, butter lamps, burning incense and dahl bhat was the second part of the Cameras for Asia program this year. Two weeks of classes were held in the Kathmandu valley at Godwari with 14 teenagers from the Children’s Welfare Centre (www.cwcnepal.org). CWC cares for children who are orphaned, socially oppressed, helpless, or abandoned by their parents and society. They come from all over Nepal but CWC becomes their home and spending time here is like becoming part of a family.

Group photo taken by Sajan in the far top left of the photo. We set the camera up on a timer to take this.

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I am pleased to announce I am one of 18 artists selected for the “Outside In” exhibition at St Vincent’s hospital here in Brisbane starting on May 23. The exhibition will run for six months and my images will be displayed on level 2.

Here’s some information about the focus of the exhibition:

“Outside In” aims to provide patients with a connection from the hospital to the outside world with artworks that engender encounters with people, places and experiences beyond the hospital itself, offering opportunities for reflection and contemplation, engaging memory and recognition, inspiration and motivation. Our aim is to make a difference to patients’ hospital experiences providing hope and aspriation (sic), diversion from regular hospital routine, relaxation and potentially improve patient health outcomes.

I love the focus of this as it fits really well into one of my mission statements of Visited Planet. I’m also really pleased to be involved with St Vincent’s as a friend of mine spent the last 12 months or so of his life at this hospital in palliative care and I used to visit him there every Saturday and sometimes show him my work with the idea of bringing the outside world to him. So I actually submitted my work in memory of Rudy (previous posts about him here and here).

Here are the images that will be on display but if you’re in Brisbane, they do look much better on the walls of the hospital so go in and see them and say hello to the patients and staff while you’re in there.

Walking into Middle Earth, Milford Sound, New Zealand.

Woman with wine bottles, Certaldo, Tuscany, Italy.

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Shan State is Myanmar largest administrative division (state) and borders China, Laos and Thailand. It’s mainly inhabited by Shan people who are originally thought to come from China. It’s also largely rural and has a number of ethnic armies.

I spent three days trekking in villages near Kaukyame with an excellent local guide staying in homestays along the way, getting real insights into how the local people live, what they eat, how they bathe and so on. This was a real privilege as official government policy is that you’re not allowed to stay with locals. Our guide had frequently seen local militia and we did come across the government’s armed forces in one town, although all seemed peaceful and relaxed despite an array of massive weaponry.

Here are some highlights.

Typical Shan house in the morning light. We stayed in houses like this throughout our trek. The accommodation was never prearranged, our guide simply turned up and asked.

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