Emily Phyo

#Response365 2021-22

#Response365 was a project started on 1 February 2021 and completed on 1 February 2022. Emily Phyo posted a different photo each day on her Instagram page @emily_phyo to protest the coup and engage in a daily and durational performance. In the previous exhibition Fighting Fear: #whatshappeninginmyanmar, Emily shared a series of photos from the first weeks of the protest, often images of herself among the throngs of people in the streets, full of anger, hope and creative energy. In this next set of photos from the same series, Emily is no longer in the streets of Yangon. She is in the jungle or in an apartment. She is on a journey, a harrowing experience made by many like her, first in hiding in Yangon, then in a small town near the border of Thailand, then in the jungles between Myanmar and Thailand, then Bangkok awaiting an update in visa status, and finally in the United States of America, where she is today with her husband and son.

#BeingEmily 2023 (ongoing)

In addition to the #Response365 series, Emily gives us a small glimpse into what she is working on now. #BeingEmily is her newest set of photographs wherein she takes one photo every day for one year. A definitive departure from her previous series, we gain insight into her daily routine, her family, and her new surroundings. Started on 1 January 2023, Emily shows how she finds purpose in the everyday as she and her family adjust to life living in Austin, Texas in the USA. The story continues on her Instagram page: @emily_phyo