SOUTH EAST ASIA

In 2003, I accompanied my then-husband on a business trip to Thailand. From there, we traveled to Myanmar—a country I had long been curious about during my years working in fashion across Asia. What I encountered was a place of deep contrasts: breathtaking and captivating, yet marked by a quiet cruelty beneath the surface.

The people I met were warm and open, yet carried the weight of decades under military rule. The country, once known as Burma, had been renamed Myanmar following the violent suppression of a pro-democracy uprising in 1989 that left thousands dead. Despite the lingering fear, there was a palpable sense of hope. Many placed their faith in Aung San Suu Kyi, then under house arrest in Rangoon, believing that change might still be possible.

This journey was not only my first real encounter with a country shaped by political repression—it was also my first photographic journey. It marked the beginning of a shift in how I saw the world, and how I began to translate experience into image.