20/12/2025
The Way Back (2023)
By Annt Hmue Mahr
This photo essay presents The Way Back (2023) by Annt Hmue Mahr, a photo essay about people living along the border after leaving their homelands for political reasons. Photographed in their current living or working spaces, each participant appears with a projected image of what they consider “home.” The work explores displacement as an ongoing state of waiting, memory, and connection to home.
This photo essay documents individuals who have migrated from their homeland to another country for political reasons and are currently living along the border. Bringing together people of different ages, genders, and backgrounds, the project reflects a shared experience of displacement and an enduring connection to home.
He makes the work by visiting each participant’s current living or working space and listening to their personal story. The participant shares a photograph of a place, object, or person they associate with home. That image is projected onto the space, and he photographs the participant together with the projection, combining memory and present life in a single image.
The work focuses on participants photographed in their present living or working environments while waiting for the possibility of return. Each participant contributes a personal photograph representing a place, object, or person they associate with home. These images are projected into their current spaces and photographed together with the subject.
By combining personal archival images with present-day portraits, the project examines how memory and belonging persist during prolonged periods of uncertainty. Displacement is presented not as a single moment of departure, but as an extended condition of waiting and attachment to home.
Photo project by ©Annt Hmue Mahr, 2023
Presented with A New Burma
