Tag: hani

For the Love of People~ Yunnan

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date April 17, 2015
8 Comments on For the Love of People~ Yunnan

Attempting documentary photography and not feeling compassionate love for people would be pointless as far as I am concerned.

I love feeling the humanity in other people’s eyes, to guess at what they are feeling, to lock eyes with them even for a brief moment, to be part of their world for the time I that I am there and later again and again through their photographs.

With each visit to Yunnan, my connections are deepened and I feel compelled to return. Simplicity is a gem in our complex world of today, a fountain of peace to a busy and crowded mind.

More soon from this amazing region of China…

Tags cheyi, children, china, documentary, ethnic, family, hani, image, love, mimo khair, minority, parents, people, photography, picture, portrait, street, trip, yunnan

CHINA Photography Yunnan

The Ethnic Minority Culture of Yunnan~ China

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date March 22, 2015
12 Comments on The Ethnic Minority Culture of Yunnan~ China

I returned with a small group of photographers last week to this remote region of China’s Yunnan Province that haunted me since my last visit to the area a couple of years back.

It is the type of journey you would do if you were really in love with photography and different cultures that make up pieces of the puzzle of the human story on our planet.

The journey was a great challenge from the long drives, to the heat, the spare accommodations and the great element of unknown.

It was the opening of my series of documentary photography workshops that I am doing in Yunnan and despite all the challenges we faced, I can happily call this a great success.

I will be sharing here a series of images, stories, portraits and special stories about this journey into a unique and mysterious part of the world.

Tags cheyi, china, documentary, ethnic minority, hani, history, honghe, human, human condition, journey, my yunnan adventure, myyunnanadventures, people, photography, workshop, yunnan

children CHINA inspiration life Photography Travel Yunnan

Day 31~ October 31st~ Yunnan

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date November 1, 2012
7 Comments on Day 31~ October 31st~ Yunnan

until the next journey~ farewell beautiful Yunnan

As harsh and as raw as Yunnan was to travel through, I am counting the days till I am able to go back there and be charmed again by its wild intensity. I have been told that the way I processed the photos of this past month has been too contrasty, too sharp, too extreme, and this is true. Yunnan for me was exactly that, rough, sharp, wild, and its lifestyle contrasting greatly with what I and most of us are used to. I feel that knowing different cultures thoroughly can only increase and deepen our humanity. So with that, I say farewell to the Honghe region of Yunnan and its colorful people and I will meet you again tomorrow with the start of a new month of images, somewhere entirely different…

Thank you for your comments, encouragement, advice and views along the way.

Tags asia, back, boy, china, ethnic minority, hani, honghe, mimo khair, people, photography, running, sepia, village, yunnan

faces inspiration life Photography street Yunnan

Day 28~ October 28th~ Yunnan

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date October 30, 2012
10 Comments on Day 28~ October 28th~ Yunnan

A rest well earned, a smile well chiseled, a face so lovely and so difficult to forget!

Tags ethnic, hani, hat, mimo khair, minority, mushan, old, photography, sitting, straw, street, village, woman

inspiration life Photography story street Yunnan

Day 26~ October 26th~ Yunnan

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date October 28, 2012
8 Comments on Day 26~ October 26th~ Yunnan

Have you ever noticed how we walk sometimes in the cities with small clouds hanging around our heads, that the shine of our smiles has a very hard time breaking through? We move as though we are troubled by so many invisible phantoms that prevent us from responding humanly to others that pass us by. But when we meet simple people in simple places, there is just us, them and their reaction. Most often it is a big generous smile that glows and its warmth is able to reach us and force a mutual reaction from our faces. And it does feel so good to exchange these smiles with the people of the world where no words are necessary.

Tags asia, china, ethnic, hani, happy, life, man, mimo khair, minority, people, photography, simple, smile, stones, worker, yunnan

inspiration life Photography story street Yunnan

Day 24~ October 24th~ Yunnan

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date October 25, 2012
4 Comments on Day 24~ October 24th~ Yunnan

There is a little girl who lives on a mountain top, her home is made of mud bricks and it is one big room, her brother, parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents all live in that big room, also her chickens, pigs, cows, cats, dog and all the birds in their trees. She has a very pretty pearl necklace and a lovely pink dress. Her name she could not tell me, she was too shy to speak. I will call her the girl with the pearl necklace.

Tags bucket, chicken, child, china, ethnic minority, girl, hani, mimo khair, mud brick, mushan, necklace, pearl, pearl necklace, photography, pink, trees, village, yunnan

inspiration life Photography story street Yunnan

Day 20~ October 20th~ Yunnan

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date October 21, 2012
8 Comments on Day 20~ October 20th~ Yunnan

hani man carrying corn — eating to live while others live to eat

When getting food requires you to go up and down a mountain, then its value increases tenfold.

Hani man with his crop of corn~ Yunnan

Tags color, crop, ethnic minority, food, hani, hat, honghe, man, mimo khair, mountain, photography, value, walking, yunnan

inspiration life Photography street Yunnan

Day 18~ October 18th~ Yunnan

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date October 19, 2012
14 Comments on Day 18~ October 18th~ Yunnan

Every little girl is a princes in her own right, she dreams of castles, fairies and forests filled with magical spirits, and she in the middle of all that wonder shines brilliantly…

Tags child, children, china, dress, ethnic minority, face, fancy, frown, girl, hani, lace, magic, palace, pink, princess, yunnan

inspiration life Photography story street Yunnan

Day 17~ October 17th~ Yunnan

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date October 18, 2012
5 Comments on Day 17~ October 17th~ Yunnan

bearing it for years — bearing it for long years

There are still places in this world, where hard labor is a way of life. The formidable Hani women build their own homes, plant and sow their own rice fields, slaughter their own animals for food and gather their own firewood for cooking. All the weight is carried on their backs and supported by their incredibly strong necks for years on end. If the essences of strength and patience were looking for a home on this planet, wouldn’t it makes sense that they would seek these people?

Tags back, carry, china, ethnic minority, firewood, hani, load, mimo khair, old, patience, people, photography, strength, traditional, tribal, walking, walking stick, woman, yunnan

inspiration life Photography story street Yunnan

Day 16~ October 16th~ Yunnan

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date October 17, 2012
27 Comments on Day 16~ October 16th~ Yunnan

Delighting at her little gift — Hani woman delighting at her little gift

After 5 days of being around these beautiful people in the mountains of Yunnan’s Honghe area, my two traveling companions and I realized that we had not seen a single other foreigner around since our arrival, and we knew that we and our ways must appear so strange to the locals. I had brought a small polaroid camera with me to offer small photos as gifts, and to my utter surprise, most of the older people had no idea that the photos were theirs. They would look at the photo after taking it from me, look at, smile and give it back wondering why I was showing them these people printed on the paper. It was so brilliant and such a great privilege to witness a culture still separated from modernism and its grip.

Tags china, color, ethnic minority, gift, hand, hani, head scarf, honghe, innocence, mimo khair, photography, polaroid, traditional, travel, woman, yunnan