A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)|A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)|A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)|A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)|A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)|A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: La Min Tun / The People’s Age)|A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)|A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)|A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)|A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: La Min Tun / The People’s Age)
A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
A photo that will appear in the exhibition “Documenting Burma’s Long March” in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
RANGOON — Photographs documenting an education reform movement, led by students whose historic protest march of more than 300 miles was brutally crushed by police last month, will be on display from Saturday to Monday at the Think Art Gallery in Rangoon.
The exhibit, “Documenting Burma’s Long March,” charts the students’ 49-day journey from Mandalay to Rangoon, with the four featured photographers having followed nearly the entirety of the march.
The photos capture the highs and lows of a protest that at turns featured jubilant chanting and tense confrontations with local authorities, right up through the brutal crackdown in Letpadan, Pegu Division, that effectively sent the movement underground.
About 40 pictures will be on display in total, shot by The Irrawaddy’s photojournalists JPaing, Sai Zaw, Hein Htet and Teza Hlaing, and one photojournalist from The People’s Age weekly journal, La Min Tun.
The onset of the protest march was documented by Mandalay-based Teza Hlaing. JPaing then followed the marchers until their arrival in Letpadan, about 80 miles northwest of Rangoon. Sai Zaw was on hand for the police crackdown on March 10, and Hein Htet and La Min Tun covered student solidarity protests in Rangoon on March 5 and March 10.
“To leave a record of that moment, the students’ protest, our photojournalists shot their activities,” JPaing said.
Student activists on Jan. 20 began their march from Mandalay to Rangoon, but the protest came up against a police blockade in Letpadan in early March, with authorities refusing to allow them to proceed to the commercial capital. The standoff ended violently on March 10, when baton-wielding police dispersed the students and detained more than 120 people.
Seventy students remain in police custody facing trial, and 11 of their supporters are also facing charges but have been released on bail.
