January 2021 – Monthly Meeting + Virtual Competition (Theme – Abstract)

Maurice Asseo is an economist and photographer. He was born in Paris and brought up in Istanbul. At the age of ten, he started taking photographs with a camera, which was presented by his father. Asseo has visited more than eighty countries and has extensively photographed many of them. He has exhibited his photographs and presented slide shows in many countries. Asseo is a former president of the Greater Washington Council of Camera Clubs and of the International Photographic Society of the World Bank and IMF, where he was awarded the Photographer of the Year title eight times. Many of his essays have won top prizes from the Photographic Society of America. The Assembly of Turkish American Associations has presented him with its Outstanding Achievement in Culture and Art award. Asseo has published several books including “The Bosporus and Beyond” (2011), “Expressive Color Photography” (2010) and Bhutan (2010).

Maurice presentation topic for the meeting is:

BHUTAN – THE LAND OF THE THUNDER DRAGON

Descendants of fierce warriors, the good-humored Bhutanese are the merriest people in Asia, even if the social indicators of the country are the second lowest of the continent.  Bhutan, which has never been colonized, is the only country in the world to rate in its constitution the need for Gross National Happiness above GDP.  The men rule their society but the women own the family property.  Could a week-long trip around Bhutan, back in 1997, which also happened to coincide with a festival held in the dzong (military fortress as well as religious, administrative and social center) of its capital, Thimphu, shed light on these and other apparent paradoxes while describing the country’s geography, history and culture?