I spent this winter in Myanmar working at a Yangon-based social enterprise called Proximity Designs, which does amazing work.
Below are some portraits I took in Yangon, a town called Bogale, and in small farming villages in the Irrawaddy Delta.
This woman, standing in a plot of betel leaves, worked on a farm that used Proximity Designs products in the Irrawaddy Delta.
This girl lived on the same farm as the woman above, her face cooled with Thanakha and sheltered from the sun by her pink umbrella.
A Yangon pedi taxi driver relaxes between trips.
In the mornings, the young monks in Yangon go about town singing and collecting alms from local businesses.
These small plot farmers in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta also used Proximity Designs Farm Advisory Services The farmer on the left, Tint Lwin, said that the use of proper pesticide usage and saltwater seed techniques that he learned from Proximity helped him increase his rice yields by 25% and cut his seed purchases in half.
These small plot farmers who live in a village only accessible by boat meet in a community building to discuss the highs and lows of their season.
This woman harvests betel leaf on a small plot farm in South Myanmar.
This woman, the mother of the girl with the pink umbrella in the second photo, cools her face with the cosmetic Thanaka paste that is popular throughout Myanmar.
A farmer stands in front of his rice paddies in the Myanmar Delta.
A fisherman sells his wares in the main market of Myanmar's rural Bogale Township.
A woman carries her purchases from the Bogale Township market on her head.
This boy was one of a group of children that greeted me every day when I returned back from work to where I was staying in Yangon.
Tint Lwin, a farmer in Myanmar's rural Irrawaddy Delta outside Bogale township, is pictured again with his wife.
This woman is the wife of Oo Soe Win, a small plot farmer in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta who used Proximity Designs products to increase his income so that he could afford a new thresher, satellite dish, solar panel, and send his four children to school. The two live on a plot by their rice paddies where they raise ducks, pigs, and chickens.
A woman sells produce at the Bogale Township's market.
