Young nuns move in quiet procession across the courtyard of Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar—one of the first glimpses into photographer Giovanna Aryafara’s exploration of monastic life.

We first encountered Giovanna Aryafara’s work when she was awarded Second Place in our The Human Portrait exhibition. What stayed with us was the quiet clarity of her images—moments that felt both deeply observed and gently held.

After receiving the award, Giovanna reached out to share that the studio she’d had for twelve years had recently burned down. “It happened during a storm,” she wrote. “Everything burned to the ground. When we heard the news about the award, my staff all clapped.” It was a reminder that behind every body of work is a life in motion—and a practice shaped not only by vision, but by resilience.

In this series created in Myanmar, Aryafara turns her lens toward the quiet, formative world of young Buddhist monks and nuns—children living within the rhythms of devotion, discipline, and communal life.

What emerges is not simply a documentation of monastic tradition, but an exploration of the space between childhood and spiritual responsibility.

Her images move fluidly between the collective and the intimate. In one frame, a line of novice monks passes before a gilded temple, their small bodies echoing ritual through repetition and scale. In another, a single boy leans into a shaft of light, absorbed in study, the outside world dissolving into stillness. Throughout the series, light becomes a central force—filtering through temple walls, catching smoke, illuminating faces—holding a sense of both the sacred and the everyday.

You can view more of Giovanna’s work at:

Website:https://giovannaphotography.com/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/giovannaphotography/