As a show skater, Roy Blakey first worked in the ‘tank show’ at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago, IL. Roy loves to document gatherings with a self-timer on his camera. He made this amazing image of my mother, B.J. Blakey French, Josie and B.B. Blakey, Marian Blakey Spencer and Roy Blakey standing outside together on the Chicago, IL street. I love this photograph. Time standing still. It seems a reminder for all families to get in a line and document your group! Because the present – you know what they say – is a gift.

So Roy first traveled to Thailand traveled to Asia in 1962 where he fell in love with the art and architecture there. Years later, working as a photographer in NYC, he started to return to his favorite place and to buy a keepsake. Can you believe what happened over the years? His love of Asian art now surrounds him in his home. Roy’s love of Asian antiquities is catchy and now I have the same love. Roy first traveled to Burma at worked there for a month with Holiday On Ice. It was the end of 1962 and they spend Christmas and New Year of 1963 there performing on ice.

The crown jewel in Myanmar (Burma) is Schwedagon Pagoda. Here is one of my panoramic images from 1995 in one of the many many side temples at the huge pagoda complex. Seems like I average one trip to Burma every decades. I am thrilled to say that I am on my way again.

Flash forward to 2004 and he and I traveled there together with the journalist Margaret Nelson. I should find some more of the images from that time. Here I am in Bagan.

Keri Pickett in Bagan in 2004.