The Yadana Pon Cinema - Yangon, Myanmar

From deep in the vaults, a near-forgotten specimen of leisure-time yore is dragged to the surface. The Yadana Pon Cinema stands dormant near busy Dagon Center, its late-Burmese Art-Deco exoskeleton faded but in tact.

Fatigue had overtaken me by the time I found it, having just come from a fruitful but physically taxing shoot of the Shwe Man Cinema around the corner. A dead theater following a stint in the Shwe Man's vitality failed to get the juices flowing. My typical enthusiasm when facing a stand-alone was absent, I admit, so in the name of energy conservation, I snapped off a few lazy shots from across the street.

Plain white tile adorns the Yadana Pon's facade.

Even in death, the Yadana Pon is the most attractive building on the block.

The Yadana Pon is in the heart of Sanchaung Township - one of the most congested parts of Yangon outside the colonial grid. A few hundred meters away, the enormous Dagon Center shopping mall attracts the city's middle class youth in droves. Despite its relative prosperity, Sanchaung, like most areas of Yangon above the rustically charming grid, is littered with structures built with seemingly nothing in mind but cost effectiveness. The exception is the Yadana Pon Cinema - dormant, darkened and awaited a fate as of yet unknown.