City at Night

By Pat Brown

April 25, 2007—Rangoon is not the same city it was five years ago when I last visited. People no longer shy away from my camera. They seem to be more uninhibited, trusting and, perhaps, free. Military intelligence agents—bullies with cell phones—appear to have left their perches on every street corner. They may, indeed, remain hidden in the shadows, but the tension they created has eased.

It is Rangoon at nightfall—and the faces that move through the darkness—that fascinates me. The evening light shows more of the city’s emotional state than its physical appearance. on the surface, things appear more stable than I remember. But surfaces can distort. In the faces of those seeking comfort in Rangoon’s darkened streets, I see etched in the cautious eyes and furrowed brows the same concerns of years past: the power cuts, the crushing poverty, the information blackout—and fiercely protected hopes for a better future.

Are the exhausted residents of this former capital really less inhibited? Are they happier than they were five years ago? No outsider can answer these questions. only Burma’s citizens can. And through the camera’s lens, I think they have.