Exhibit: Cultural Encounters in Asia
This collection focuses on images from my recent visits to Asia, including China, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in 2013 and 2014, plus a visit to India in 2015. The emphasis in this collection is on the people of the places that I visited. My main goal was to capture intimate or compelling moments with them.
I was born in Bangkok of missionary parents and spent much of my youth in Asia, including in a high school for missionary children that moved from Vietnam to Thailand and then to Malaysia. In 2012, forty-five years after my graduation from high school and departure from the region, I began revisiting this part of the world. I’m now using my deepening fascination with photography to focus and intensify my reawakened bond with the people and the places of my youth.
All the images in this exhibit are archival inkjet prints on archival paper. To purchase a print or pursue a question/comment, contact me at mark@movergaard.com.
A farmer in Zhou Cheng, China, is delighted to welcome visiting photographers into his courtyard.
On the Muslim Kurban holiday, each devout Muslim family sacrifices a sheep, and a sharp knife is important to that mission. A customer, on the left, provides power to the grinding wheel as a knife is sharpened. Kashgar, China.
A young man awaits buyers for his sheep at the massive livestock market in Kashgar, China, just before the Muslim Kurban holiday.
The northern mountains of Vietnam are home to numerous minority tribes, many of which have distinctive dress traditions, particularly for women. This woman is part of the Black Hmong tribe.
A Flower Hmong clothing vendor, with northern Vietnam terraced rice fields in the background. Flower Hmong are among the most colorfully dressed of Vietnam’s minority hill tribes.
The Padaung subgroup of the Karen tribe is based mainly in Burma (Myanmar), but some, like this woman, have emigrated to northern Thailand. Within the Padaung, women adorn themselves with neck coils. The practice starts at age 5 or so, with a coil that has a few turns. As a girl matures to adulthood, the original coil is replaced with successively longer ones with additional turns.
A young woman in a Padaung Karen village market stall in northern Thailand. These neck coils press down on the wearer's clavicle and rib cage, resulting in the appearance of a long neck.
A young Padaung Karen girl in northern Thailand, already started with the distinctive brass neck coil.
A Padaung Karen girl in the market village of Ban Mae Khao Tom, northern Thailand.
A young Padaung Karen woman in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand.
A young Cambodian novice monk at Wat Hanchey, a hilltop temple along the Mekong (with his friend silhouetted nearby) enjoys wash time.
The gritty streets of Old Delhi, India, where much of the transportation is people-powered.
A vegetable vendor in Old Delhi, India, weighs the purchases of a customer.
Even on a bustling downtown street in Mumbai,, the most populous city in India, this man enjoys a moment of quiet reflection.
Along the shores of the Ganges River in Varanasi, a Hindu guru greets the rising sun with ceremony.
The Ganges River is holy water for Hindus, and bathing in the river is a sacred moment. The river also meets the more ordinary daily needs of tens of millions of Indians, including these in Varanasi.
A pair of Rabari herders and their goats in Rajasthan, India. The long poles over their shoulders are used to shake seed pods from the trees for the herd.
The women of India, like this one in Jodhpur, often are dramatically dressed. The walls of this Blue City enclave often are elaborately decorated, as well.
A woman sits against the blue walls of centuries-old Jodhpur, hand-stitching a sari fall. The stitches need to be invisible, and therefore tiny, so good light is essential.
A basket maker crosses a Jodhpur square in the late afternoon sun, returning home with her unsold baskets.
An intense after-market chat among some Jodhpur, India women.
A friendly face in the colorful city of Jodhpur, India.
Happy women in Jodhpur, India, the "Blue City".
A contemplative woman against the colorful walls of Jodhpur, India.
A member of the 500-year-old Bishnoi social group visits Jodhpur. Bishnoi are Thar desert dwellers with religious tenets that require environmental sensitivity, including the protection of all life forms.
This woman’s colorful clothes and a well-cared-for goat belie the stark Thar desert landscape of this part of Rajasthan, India.
This woman welcomes visitors into the beautifully painted courtyard of her home in the Thar desert of Rajasthan, India
A friendly woman in the Indian community of Shergarh, in the Rajasthani Thar desert.
These Indian devotees of Lord Krishna likely came to “play Holi” in this particular Vrindavan temple because of its close association with Krishna. The writing on their shirts is the Hare Krishna mantra.
This pedestal holds a small metal sculpture of a cow and calf. Cows are sacred in Hinduism and synonymous with Lord Krishna. In this extended exposure, Holi celebrants are paying respect and touching the pedestal for a blessing.
The Holi Festival is color bliss for photographers, but it is also deeply spiritual for many participants. Celebrating Holi in this Mathura, India, Hindu temple has a musical dimension as well.
A paint- and powder-splashed Holi celebrant in Vrindavan, India.
A Holi participant in a Vrindavan temple seems to radiate both ordinary human happiness and spiritual bliss.
A teenager in Vrindavan, India, has thoroughly enjoyed the color immersion of Holi.
Even while drenched in color, these celebrants demonstrate the reverent side of Holi, as well.