Though Coca-Cola and a Wi-Fi connection can be found across most of the globe today, there are still groups of us who live unfettered by the glowing and glittery accoutrement of consumer society, and closer to the traditions passed down across centuries of humankind. These traditions—though designed to help thrive in a world often harsh and unforgiving—are in a state of constant decline, as more members of the next generation leave them behind to become relics of history.
To find some of the people who still live this way, it helps to know where to look, explained photographer Richard Lindekens, whose show Traditions on the Edge currently hangs at the Elverhoj Museum in Solvang. The exhibit includes photographs of people Lindekens met and stayed with in Mongolia and Myanmar (aka Burma), whose way of life and traditions are increasingly rare.
“It started off as an artistic show, and then it changed. It’s complex and turned into a story about what I do in the developing world, and the idea is to photograph these people that are losing their identities,” Lindekens said. “So much of the world is being Walmarted, and it’s like everybody wants to be the same, so it’s tough for these people to hang on to their traditional way of life.”
To gain the trust and permission of local families, communities, and governments in each country wasn’t an easy matter for Lindekens. It took several visits across a few years, several care packages, letters, and Skype calls to arrange the trips to both countries that would yield the images in Traditions on the Edge, Lindekens explained.
Thanks to a connection made through an American teacher he met in Mongolia, Lindekens was invited to stay among some of the indigenous Mongolians famous for their traditions of high-altitude living, horse mastery, and their trained golden eagles used for hunting. Lindekens was able to attend the annual eagle hunting festival in Bayan-Ulgii in Western Mongolia, where he photographed generations of eagle hunters showcasing the skill.
“I travel alone but work with local guides, and the guides I have known in these places I have known for years, and they understand what type of photography I’m trying do,” he said. “They’re really influential in knowing the people I want to work with, and they are able to get me the permission to get into these places.”
Because he travels alone, Lindekens spends plenty of time checking his passport with local governments. In the case of Mongolia, the local government alerted China of his presence, because the Altai Mountains straddle the border of the two countries.
Lindekens’ interest in Myanmar (Burma)—the other country featured in the exhibit—is long held. Born to WWII-era parents and a Vietnam veteran himself, Lindekens explained, he holds a fascination with the region and its history, especially how the region came to play in WWII. He spent time in the northwest part of Myanmar, near the Chin State, where the British Empire was established during the war.
“Burma is a very interesting country; it’s as colorful as you can imagine,” he said. “And what intrigued me was, nobody in the Western world has been allowed to go there since the 1950s, because there has been a junta and we have not, for the most part, recognized them until just recently, but it is opening up now.”
He traveled up the Le Mro River in Burma with a fellow photographer and two bilingual locals, who took him to their village, Than Taung, where Lindekens was able to photograph the villagers. A number of elderly women there still reflected an aged tradition on their faces: spiderweb-like tattoos. They also made sure to dress to the nines for the visiting photographer, he explained.
“The women there knew that I was coming to the village, and they knew they would show up with all their ethnic clothing, which is a big deal,” he said. “They looked like they came for the concourse show, and that lady with the cigar was the best. I gave her that cigar, because the women there love to smoke.”
Lindekens has delivered a few talks at the museum, including one about Mongolia on Aug. 28, with another about Burma scheduled on Sept. 25. He is more than knowledgeable about each country’s history, and has plenty of backstory about all of the people in his images.
“The faces talk, their eyes talk,” he said. “I love that, because I didn’t realize how much a photo could tell until I started focusing on people and their faces.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne reads a story in everyone’s face. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 3-10, 2015.