Spanish photographer Rubén Salgado Escudero is best known for his ‘solar portraits’, vivid depictions of Myanmar villagers experiencing electric light for the first time via solar panels. The images, published in Time Magazine, generated interest from humanitarians worldwide. Now, Escudero has teamed up with non-profit Pact to raise funds for solar panel distribution throughout the dry zone. Coconuts Yangon caught up with him to find out more.
How did the crowdfunding initiative get off the ground?
It all started when I did a project called ‘Solar Project in Myanmar’ which depicted people who had electricity for the very first time using solar light. This project got quite a lot of visibility after being published at Time magazine and various other publishers. Due to that I began to get a lot of emails from people who asked what they could do to help the situation and bring more solar light to Myanmar. It’s a temporary but very fast solution. Specifically, one reader from Austria was very keen on doing crowdfunding. We have been working together for the past two months to put this together and raise funds to distribute solar lights to a specific rural area in Myanmar called the Dry Zone. We’ve teamed up with Pact, which is one of the most active NGOs in Myanmar – they’ve been there for 18 years. They’ve just begun a solar distribution program so together with their know-how we are creating this crowd-funding.
What prompted your own interest in solar?
I began to be interested in solar power in Myanmar when I was working for an organisation that took me around the country for about a month. One thing that was very shocking to me was the fact that most villages were in the dark after the sun went down. Only 26 per cent of the population have access to light. I went into a village which had a few households with solar panels and the change was drastic. Just being able to see how their neighbors had to use candles to do something as basic as read a book or cook, how different the quality of life was for those who did have light. I got the idea to talk to these people and discuss how life had been affected since having solar light. How they responded gave me the idea to take portraits using solar light as the only illumination source. I met different people. Fishermen who use the light to get out on the water one hour earlier to catch more fish. Farmers who milk their cows. Even monks who have solar lights in the monastery. Everything things such as children who can read and study at night. People who can cook or just eat and look at each other without the need of candles, which are dangerous and expensive.
How can ordinary people afford solar panels in Myanmar?
Well, that’s a good question. Most people cannot afford them. A solar light system not from a cheap manufacturer, something sustainable, might cost about $100. That’s a month’s wages for most people. Some organisations such as Pact are starting solar system distribution projects as a temporary solution, until the grid reaches villages, which at this point looks very far away. It could be 10 or 15 more years until the country is electrified – if not more. The thing is, to us, this technology is becoming much more affordable. Five or 10 years back it was very expensive. For the Western world it’s now very affordable but still not, unfortunately, for everyday [Myanmar] people. That’s where projects like this come in.
See the indiegogo.com page here. Pact has promised all funds raised will go to their solar project.
Photos: Rubén Salgado Escudero
Reader Interactions