Brief Description

Myanmar weathered the early storms of the COVID-19 pandemic with prompt introduction of containment measures in spite of its scarce resources. Prevention measures were applied also during the holding of General Elections on January 18, 2021, in which a large majority of the population voted for Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League of Democracy (NLD) party.

However, the military coup on February 1, detaining Myanmar’s elected leaders and placing the entire country under a ‘State of Emergency’, led to the devastation of all sectors, with healthcare one of the worst affected.

With Myanmar facing the third wave of the pandemic triggered by the Delta variant, large numbers of patients were forced to go through the illness in their own homes due to a severe lack of medical services depending on the help of volunteers and striking Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) health personnel.

During the height of the surge, Yangon’s crematoriums worked around the clock to burn the dead.

About the photographer

Ta Mwe is a Burmese documentary photographer with experience covering a wide range of political and social stories and events throughout Myanmar. After many years working for national and international publications and organizations as a photographer, videographer and video editor, Ta Mwe’s recent work has focused on analogue still photography, covering first the COVID-19 crisis and then the country’s anti-coup protests. Due to the political situation in Myanmar the name Ta Mwe is an alias and this bio has been heavily redacted to remove any identifying information. See further https://tamwe.link 

The photos were first exhibited at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) from 17 October to 5 November titled “Who Cares? COVID-19 Divides in Southeast Asia” With the exception of Myanmar, selected photos from the countries’ documentation also served to illustrate the book, “Who Cares? COVID-19 Social Protection Response in Southeast Asia”, edited by Rosalia Sciortino and published by Silkworm Books.