*HIVE*
I am unhappy and want to become happy. I’m not alone in this.
There is of course an individual, psychological dimension to happiness. But "Village / I Want to Slow Down" presents a personal inquiry into the social and material conditions of happiness. Collectively we’ve taken a wrong turn. With this project I wander abroad and wonder aloud how we can get back on track. I shot “Village” on 35mm black and white film amongst Palaung people in the mountains of Burma (Myanmar). I had passed through on a short trek and was moved by the uncomplicated beauty of the people and their place--or the place and its people, inseparable as they are, each belonging to each. I returned to learn what I could and document what I found.
Life in the village is physical, simple, quiet, human. One main road, paved with stones, leads from the town gate to the dilapidated monastery on the hill. Up and down the road range kids, dogs, horses, donkeys, motorbikes, primitive Chinese off-road trucks--and, this being Myanmar after all, soldiers of shifting and ambiguous allegiances.
The Palaung are people of tea, steeped in a sense of belonging and togetherness stemming not just from shared tribal identity and Buddhist practice, but also from shared labor. From sunup to sundown they work together tending, harvesting, and processing their high-altitude crop.
During the growing season, days are long and hard, though not without unhurried quiet times. Neighbors drift unannounced through opened doors for conversation, tea, tea salad, cigarettes, and homebrew. And because most villagers content themselves with what they can afford, the entire village earns three or four months a year of down-time during which they relax at home or go on pilgrimage throughout Burma.
We can’t cut and paste the Palaung way of life over our own, but we can take in some of their self-assurance, their warm smiles, their camaraderie, and their hospitality, thereby watering the seeds of the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
