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Wed Jul 13 16:09:00 BST 2011 | Still Lifes from a Vanishing City

Still life with medicine bottles, fly swatter, and portrait of deceased accordion player

Roughly 80 per cent of the colonial buildings I entered were, for some reason or another – be it auctions, safety, or overt redevelopment – soon to be demolished and built again. This two-room apartment, which has housed the same family for over sixty years, will soon be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The image of the family’s patriarch, who long since passed away, hangs on the wall. He was one of Burma’s most renowned accordion players.

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