I am currently reading Zoya Phan's wonderful book "Little Daughter" which has given me an insight into the Karen peoples lives in Burma and their journey into the Thai camps.
My idea would be to travel to these camps and perhaps others (other ethnic group camps, Hmong refugees?) and make portraits of the people there. I could then use the portraits to help raise awareness and possibly funds for the people in the camps.
I wonder if there is an effective way I could incorporate audio in this series? Maybe do portraits and then have people tell stories of their life now and before. A strong portrait with a expressive story could double the impact of the work and raise awareness that much more.
Funding is a problem as always, maybe this could be my next attempt at a Alberta Foundation For the Arts Grant.
I think what i will do is take a 3 week trip to Asia (all I can afford now) with only my 35mm Leica's and shoot in the Mae Sot dump areas, shoot in Mae Sot in general and try to visit some of these refugee camps. If all goes well then in the future (at the end of this year or next year) I could go into these same areas for a longer period of time with larger equipment.
