“Last week we found a 500 pound bomb and we were happy”. Bunney and Harley photofilm in Laos.

Tessa Bunney and Rebecca Harley are a formidable team.

Both of them are ex duckrabbit trainees with Harley going on to set up the magical Hinterlands workshops where they met. Since then they’ve been collaborating on projects. Their latest photofilm, about the women clearing Laos of cluster bombs, has just been published on the FT times website.

Bunney is seriously great photographer and Harley is a seriously talented producer (and photog) who never lets whizz and bang get in the way of a good story. But this is more than a good story. Its a timely reminder that people will continue to pay the price for war long after it has been won or lost. Their voices so important.

During the Vietnam war, the US dropped more than 270 million cluster munitions over Laos. Many of these “bombies”, as they are known locally, failed to detonate and remained on the ground as death traps. The last bomb fell on Laos in 1973, but at least 20,000 people have been killed or injured since by unexploded ordnance (UXO) and the country remains the most heavily bombed, per capita, in history.

Also do check out MediaStorm’s superb work about MAG in Laos and Angola.