The work of Myanmar photographer Minzayar Oo — detained by Bangladeshi authorities last month while covering the Rohingya refugee crisis — was one of the most talked-about topics at today’s Rory Peck Awards in London, where he became the first photographer to receive the Martin Adler Prize. The prize honors a local freelancer who has made a significant contribution to newsgathering.
The 29-year-old former medical student has made a name for himself as one of Myanmar’s leading photojournalists documenting the country’s political and economic change over the last five years.
He has set himself apart through his commitment to covering the plight of the Rohingya, which many Myanmar journalists ignore. He has been visiting Rohingya refugee camps in Myanmar since 2012, and his closeness to the community has allowed him to tell complex, intimate stories.
His Reunions and Ransoms story for Reuters, shot inside the internet huts in the Thae Chaung village refugee camp, shows Rohingya families connecting over Skype on dusty laptops, with relatives and loved ones who have left for Thailand and Malaysia. It also reveals their vulnerability at the hands of human traffickers who exploit their precarious situation as members of one of the largest group of stateless people in the world.
His long-term documentary project, The Price of Jade, exposes, for the first time, the horrific social impact of Myanmar’s secretive, multi-billion dollar jade industry in conflict-torn Kachin State and reveals the perilous lives of hundreds of thousands of young people who have migrated there to work as miners, hoping to find a shortcut to wealth.
Minzayar Oo’s first international breakthrough came in 2012 when his image of Aung San Suu Kyi appeared on the front page of the International Herald Tribune on the day after the country’s historic by-elections, which saw her elected to parliament.
He and fellow Myanmar photographer Hkun Lat were detained by Bangladeshi authorities in Cox’s Bazar, prompting international outcry by human rights and press organizations calling for their release. They were eventually released after 15 days.
“It’s difficult for a local photographer to cover stories like these within Myanmar and bring them out to the wider world,” said Sarah Ward Lilley, chair of the Rory Peck Trust, whose trustees selected Minzayar for the Martin Adler Prize.
“We wanted to recognize that achievement and to celebrate Minzayar’s talent. He is still only 29 and already he has produced such an impressive body of work.”
The prize is named after the Swedish journalist who was killed in 2006 while on a reporting assignment in Somalia.
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