Focusing on light, texture and expression, is my aim for taking black and white images. I think that removing the colour in certain circumstances allows the viewer to focus on the core idea of the image. In a number of these images there are stories behind. In some the story is evident and you guess of the hardships suffered and the tough lives endured. In others not so evident and I wish that I could convey the detail of their lives that offer them respect and care. In one image (Portrait 1407), here you will see a boy with the scare of a tracheotomy. As a small and fragile baby he was handed a congental condition resulting from drug-effected parents. It was very difficult for him to breath and every breath was a heave and release. It was heart-breaking to see and it left him without energy and oxygen. He was lucky enough to have a tracheotomy giving him the air he needed to run, play and sleep. Finally he was released from the apparatus to allow him to breath and he fully recovered. This picture shows him as 14 year old, getting on with life.

In another image you see a Laotian girl (LoasGirl1), who has lost her parents and she sits with her sister attempting to sell 6 potatoes. She is living at the bottom of the pile - little food, no parents, and little love. I feel for her very much. And yet she manages a smile.

You can see more at @Jasmineimages - Facebook and in another of my web sites at: JasminePhotography.pro, and in my YouTube publication: People of Southeast Asia.

Time in Leung Prabang, Laos, revealed to me a culture with a simple lifestyle content in what they dont have and what they have.

These are scenes from the villages I spent time in and around.