Shwe Wutt Hmon

The spring of 2021 in Myanmar was beyond idyllic, but anger and discontentment characterised the mood of the people who flocked to the streets to protest against the military junta’s coup that overthrew their democratic government. Photographer Shwe Wutt Hmon was part of these protests, and she developed ‘Forever Young’ over the course of the Spring Revolution, documenting the festering intergenerational rage that had found a new outlet in the linguistic, cultural and stylistic idiosyncrasies of the nation’s Gen Z. The uniquely peaceful protests by Myanmar’s youth were met with brutal military violence. Many lost their lives, many are still imprisoned, while others live in constant danger.

Shwe’s poetically inclined repertoire often includes intimate, contemplative images shot within private, enclosed spaces. In ‘Forever Young’, which comprises a twin series of photo-collage portraits of Gen Z protesters, her attention is focused outdoors, on the public. Awash in red, the portraits are remarkably absent. The real faces and identities of the protesters are hidden in a discomfiting chaos, in some instances obscured by delicate spring flowers, in others by guns and bullets.

Shwe uses collage as a technique to mask, shield and shroud. The absence of the protesters serves as a reminder of the way the dictatorship has stifled a generation, stripping them of their right to expression. Tragically, it is also only by erasing them from their own portraits, thus offering anonymity, that Shwe can protect them and let their voices be heard. The only emblem of their identity is revealed through numbers painted across the background of the portraits – a tribute to their tender age.