Burma is a country under the iron rule of one of the world's most brutal and despotic regimes, where the systematic rape, torture, execution and imprisonment of ordinary citizens are commonplace.Since the popular uprising of 1988 (that saw literally thousands of people killed by the military) and the concomitant general election of 1990, Burma's democratically elected leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been held under house arrest by a corrupt ruling military junta who refuse to acknowledge her party's legitimacy.
Despite the junta's barbaric human rights abuses and totalitarian zeal, Burma projects a very different picture to the wider world, remaining a popular travel destination and a trade partner of many of the world's major powers. It is precisely this projected facade, this permitted and sanitized view of the country that the photographer James Mackay explores in his latest work, soon to be exhibited at The Smithfield Gallery. 

Dazed Digital caught up with him to find out just what he had captured in the eye of his lens: Dazed Digital: What were you attempting to achieve in this work? 
James Mackay: Well, first I want to make it clear that I am not a political activist; I do however have a strong passion for the country and have followed the situation for some time. Rather than just representing the situation in an objective documentary fashion these photographs are asking the viewer to question whether what they see is a reality or a creation. 

DD: The Burmese Military Junta is notoriously vicious, as a Western photographer did you run into the authorities? 
JM: It is forbidden to shoot anything that may be deemed sensitive and it's important not to underestimate how paranoid the junta is about the outside world. Travel is limited and wandering off the allowed routes can do more harm than good. While you can be deported, it's the people you've had contact with that will then face the wrath of the Junta. It's hard to be faced with that kind of situation. I was more interested in capturing what goes on in the day-to-day life, the hidden realities in what we are allowed to see. 

DD: Do you feel there will ever be regime change in Burma?
JM: I hope that one day Daw Suu will be free and that the people of Burma can enjoy the simple rights we take for granted. Unfortunately history dictates that one brutal regime often replaces another, and this one has such strong economic backing from Russia and China that until something changes there I doubt there will be any real change. As Immanuel Kant wrote…"Perhaps a revolution can overthrow autocratic despotism and profiteering or power-grabbing oppression, but it can never truly reform a manner of thinking; instead, new prejudices, just like the old ones they replace, will serve as a leash for the great unthinking mass." 

DD: What is day-to-day life like in Burma for the majority of citizens? 
JM: Well, here you can stay at your girlfriend's house or crash at a mates place, but if you do that in Burma without the police knowing where you are, you face jail. Contact with the outside world is practically non-existent. Internet access is monitored, electricity is scarce, there is no healthcare and education is severely restricted. There is also no free press. If you were to demonstrate peacefully for the right to question what the government were doing you'd be arrested. 

DD: How do you think the West can best help to alleviate the plight of the Burmese people?
JM: There is such a vast media blackout on the country that a lot of people have no idea of what's going on. If anyone is interested in the situation then they should contact pressure groups and NGOs such as Voices For Burma, Burma Campaign UK, even their local MP, and find out what they are doing to help. One of the biggest taboo subjects is that of tourism, I can only say that the people I met there were glad to be able to meet people who might be able to take their message to the outside world.

DD: If there was one thing you experienced in Burma that will remain indelibly marked on your consciousness forever what was it? 
JM: Standing alone outside the gates to Aung San Suu Kyi's house was a frozen moment in time that I will never forget. If ever there is a life changing moment when you realize what you take for granted, then that was it. Turning around to face the 3 armed guards pointing their machine guns at me suddenly paled into insignificance.