Ore Huiying

Documentary photographer
     
Unlocking Laos
Location: Singapore
Nationality: Singaporean
Biography: Ore Huiying is a documentary photographer from Singapore. Her practice revolves around storytelling. Working mostly on personal projects and editorial assignments, Ore’s works have been published in Le Monde newspaper (France), Courrier... MORE
Public Story
Unlocking Laos
Copyright Ore Huiying 2024
Updated Dec 2012
Topics development, highspeed, Laos, mega project, Photography, railway, Vientiane

    I have always been fascinated about railways and stories around it. When I learned about the Trans Asian Railway Network, a blueprint by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) to create a network of rail tracks across Asia and Europe, I was immediately intrigued. This curiosity led me to Laos, a landlocked country in South East Asia that is one of the missing links in this blueprint. The communist nation, typically described as poor and underdeveloped, has an ambitious plan to build a highspeed train that would connect it to China and Thailand. Currently, there is only 3.5km of railtrack in Laos. For a country with little history of rail, the proposed highspeed train could potentially generate economic benefits and propel its development. At the same time, it could cause groups of people to experience new poverty.

     What started out as a simple inquiry about Laos highspeed railway project, very quickly turned into a fascinating experience as I journeyed into the world of economists, sociologists, politicians and locals. The interwoven complexities of this mega project revealed themselves to me through their perspectives. Instead of finding answers, I walked away with a myriad of questions. Could Laos’ dream be a nightmare in disguise? This series of images, part of a work in progress project ‘Unlocking Laos’, is not an attempt to predict the future, neither is it an attempt to provide a detailed analysis of the present. It is instead, an attempt to paint a portrait of a particular country at a particular time, and to provide an understanding of the major forces of change that are acting upon it. I hope my project will urge my audience to ask some questions, relating to the welfare of the people who inhabit this country, and the integrity of the natural world in which they exist and upon which they depend.

LinkedIn Icon Facebook Icon Twitter Icon
3,768

Also by Ore Huiying —

Story

Xayabouri Dam Laos

Ore Huiying
Story

Eternal Fatigue

Ore Huiying
Story

Golden City of Boten

Ore Huiying
Unlocking Laos by Ore Huiying
Sign-up for
For more access