Documentary · Street · Portrait · Food

Stories shot
on the way to somewhere.

I'm Derek - a documentary and portrait photographer working with the Myanmar community, who cooks too much and travels whenever the light is right. Warm grades, rich greens, soft highlights, all shot on a Sony A6400.

See the work Work with me

Cinematic warm-graded night portrait of a man on a city street — A6400 · 35mmFRAME 12A · KODAK PORTRA

Documentary

Street, portrait, and long-form documentary work with the Myanmar community - cinematic, film-like, warm and high-contrast.

Cooking

Fast, scrappy snack concepts. The kind of five-minute bites you make at midnight and end up making again.

Travel

Adventure and documentary stories from wherever the trail goes - usually somewhere green, usually a little lost.

01The Portfolio

Frames worth keeping

A rotating set of street and portrait work. Every frame graded by hand for warmth, contrast, and that filmic falloff in the highlights.

Man lit by warm storefront glow on a dark night street — After HoursMexico Cityf/1.8 · 1/125 · ISO 800

Portrait of a woman in soft warm window light — Window SeatBudapestf/2.0 · 1/200 · ISO 400

Figure with an umbrella under glowing street lamps at night — Rain GlowTokyof/2.8 · 1/60 · ISO 1600

Moody portrait of a man wreathed in soft smoke — Slow BurnStudiof/1.4 · 1/250 · ISO 320

Street portrait of a man in Casablanca in warm afternoon light — Old TownCasablancaf/2.5 · 1/400 · ISO 200

Silhouette of a person with an umbrella on a misty street at night — Fog WalkBerlinf/4.0 · 1/30 · ISO 3200

02Documenting Myanmar

The community, up close

An ongoing body of documentary work with the Myanmar community - the diaspora, the people doing community rescue, and the social stories that get overlooked. Shot with the same warm, film-like grade as everything else, because dignity deserves good light.

Residents on a roadside passing water to monks walking for alms

Featured series · Yangon · ongoing

What the street provides

Following the small acts that keep a neighborhood standing - food passed hand to hand, water set out for strangers, the quiet economy of people looking after each other.

View the series

The diaspora

Portraits and stories of Myanmar families building a life across borders - what they carry, and what they keep.

Community rescue

Documenting the mutual-aid networks and volunteers holding people up when the systems around them don't.

Social documentation

Long-form, on-the-ground reporting of daily life and the issues that rarely make it past the headline.

Monk holding an alms bowl while walking a city street — Morning AlmsYangonf/2.0 · 1/250 · ISO 400

Crowded street food market in Yangon at dusk — Night MarketYangonf/1.8 · 1/125 · ISO 1250

Close documentary portrait of an elderly woman — EldersCommunityf/2.2 · 1/200 · ISO 320

Young monks crossing U Bein bridge at sunrise — U Bein, First LightMandalayf/4.0 · 1/500 · ISO 100

People gathered in a town square in front of a temple — The SquareYangonf/5.6 · 1/320 · ISO 200

Shwedagon Pagoda glowing gold in Yangon — ShwedagonYangonf/8.0 · 1/60 · ISO 400

03From the Kitchen

Five-minute bites

Quick-cooking snack concepts for impatient appetites. Big flavor, almost no plan, and absolutely no special equipment.

Crispy garlic snack bites with chili-honey glaze on a dark plate

Signature · 5 min

Drunkard's Delight

Five-minute garlic bites with a chili-honey glaze - crisp at the edges, sticky in the middle. Built for the back half of a good night, when standards drop and cravings spike.