PHOTOGRAPHER Aart Groothuis travelled to Myanmar (Burma) in late 2012 and was, PhotoAccess tells us,  instantly beguiled by what he saw.

With the help of curator Christine Cummings, Groothuis selected from 1400 digital photographs just 32 that best conveyed his impressions of the country. The resulting exhibition, opening at The Manuka Arts Centre tonight,  celebrates a culturally rich place increasingly exposed to globalisation.

Largely a self-taught photographer, Groothuis learnt many of the fundamentals of camera technique while growing up in Indonesia, where his late father used slide film to document people and landscape. This early exposure to his father’s work, together with his  own sympathetic eye, is evident in a vivid series of photographs exploring Myanmar.

In his exhibition, Groothuis looks past the images of Myanmar familiar to us through media representations, to find beauty and grace in daily life, and in the country’s traditional architecture.

“Myanmar”, at PhotoAccess’ Huw Davies Gallery, Manuka Arts Centre until March 2, Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 4pm and weekends 12 noon to 4pm.