People's Desire - Softcover

Dong Lin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0979595452 ISBN 13: 9780979595455

Publisher: Visuals Press, 2010

People s Desire (July 2010, Visuals Press) is a unique book of photography. It is unique as the author had rather unprecedented access to the secretive country of Burma (Myanmar) throughout the last decade. As a photographer, he was mesmerized with how the everyday people of that troubled country coped with everyday life. Despite the grinding poverty and hideously oppressive military rule, people try to live their lives with grace, laughter, and compassion. Despite its fitful launch into the modern world, Burma is still a deeply traditional Buddhist country. People crave individual liberties, self-expression, modern consumer goods as well as freedom that comes from being beyond desires of worldly aspiration. People s Desire examines the tension between these two seemingly contradictory perspectives. Contrasts between traditional and modern life also are experienced in the striking disparity between country and urban life, and between the traditional Buddhist monkhood (sangha) and lay Burmese individuals who are increasingly interested in popular global culture. Book format is 8¼ x 9¾ in, high quality paper and printing (116 black/white duotone prints) further identifies this book as a photography-as-art book.

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About the Author:

Dong Lin was born and raised in Beijing. In 1990, he moved to San Francisco to study photography. From 1992 until 2007, Dong was the senior photographer for the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, during which time he became a wildlife photographer, taking part in twenty-four international expeditions. His photographs have appeared in books, journals and magazines as well as in natural history museum exhibitions. In 1996, he published One American Reality, his first book of black-and-white photography, about homelessness in San Francisco and New York City. In 1997, he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in photography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He was a visiting scholar in the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, from 1999 to 2004. Dong lives and works in the San Francisco bay area.

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