Art Showcase in the Donkey Backroom

Artwork by Ben Lachman - "Burmese Days"
Showing May 24 – August 2

Born and bred in Athens county, Ben Lachman traveled with his wife to Myanmar (also known as Burma) in 2005 to spend time doing volunteer work. Also an amateur photographer, Ben took the time to document his experience of one of the most oppressed countries in the world. The exhibit, titled Burmese Days, focuses on the people and architecture of Myanmar, a country which does not contain a highway and has been oppressed by its military since the 1940s. The government exploits the country's considerable natural resources, attacks and enslaves minority ethnic groups and isolates the population from the rest of the world giving it a feeling of the 1950s third world preserved to the present day. Despite all this, the country contains many beautiful and unique sites and the inhabitants are welcoming and even charitable in their poverty and oppression.

Ben is an independent Macintosh software developer & consultant, and lives in Athens with his wife, Catherine, and daughter, Anna Belle. He has been an amateur photographer for the past 8 years.

All prints are for sale, and 20% of all proceeds from the sale of this work will go to to Partners Relief & Development (http:// www.partnersworld.org). Partners is an organization Ben and his wife volunteered with while in Thailand. Partners works with Burmese refugees and is currently aiding cyclone relief by sending teams of native relief workers into the Irrawaddy delta region of Myanmar. 8x10 framed prints are $30, 16x20 prints are $65.

Ben Lachman

blachman@mac.com

740.590.0009