Photographs produced by non-state actors in Burma and the Burmese borderlands

Sadan, Mandy (2017). Photographs produced by non-state actors in Burma and the Burmese borderlands. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: Economic and Social Research Council. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-850628

Burma has one of the most complex ethnographic landscapes in South East Asia and since independence in 1948 has suffered continued conflict. Many ethnic groups feel they have been inadequately represented in the main political developments at the centre, whilst many central political and military organisations feel that militant ethnic groups have fractured attempts to build a modern Burmese state. One dimension of these conflicts is the way that people imagine the ethnic 'other', and in this respect the historical production of images has contributed significantly to the production of ideologies of ethnicity, conflict and nationhood. This project will try to understand how photographic images in particular have played a role in these ideologies and conflicts. It will explore the introduction of photographic image-making in different parts of the country and how 'ethnic' images have been used and interpreted through Burmese and other indigenous language media to support, challenge and instrumentalise particular discourses on identity and the nation at Burma's centre, as well as in a range of non-Burman communities. Initially a data collection exercise, the hope is that substantive foundations can be laid for the development of further work on these issues in the future and in comparative contexts.

Data description (abstract)

The contemporary Burmese state, (Union of Myanmar), recognises thirteen ethnic 'families', of which the ethnic Burman peoples are but one. Since independence from Britain in 1948, Burma has experienced endemic ethnic conflict. Photographic images have political potential in this setting and intersect with ideologies of ethnic representation. Photographs offer both dangers and opportunities to militarised minority communities, at once making them vulnerable to discourses of discrimination, and yet also capable of mobilizing ideas of unity amongst otherwise disparate groups.

This research examined the ways in which photographic images have, historically and in the present, intersected with fields of action relating to ethnic politics and conflict. Working with images collated by some of the main non-state armed groups in Burma and on her borders, this project aimed to explore ways in which we can understand how ethnicity functions as a vector of photographic representation in Burma. It aimed to understand how photographic images were and are produced, circulated and consumed by militarised armed communities and through various, but interconnected, people, sites and times. It also sought to understand emergent Burmese photographic traditions by examining the fate of studios that arose in the colonial period after independence, the extent of amateur and professional camera ownership and the social, political and representational networks that photographers and photography formulated.

The project thus laid foundations for further study of the interrelationship between photography, ethnicity and conflict in multiple sites around Burma and in the main areas of resistance on her borders.

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