Chan Chao was born in Kalemyo, Burma in 1966. He and his family left Burma for the United States in 1978. Chao studied photography under John Gossage at the University of Maryland. He currently lives in Washington, D.C., where he works as a freelance photographer."Chan Chao's portraits are remarkable for the honesty with which they portray the plight of the people who are trapped in this terrible conflict. In his pictures one sees despair, defeat suffering and incomprehension; one see also the courage, fatalism and hope that has sustained this war for more than half a century. As a record of human suffering, Chan Chao's portraits are as valuable as Roger Fenton's pictures of the Crimean war, Robert Capa's photographs of World War II and Sunil Janah's images of the Bengal famine of 1942" Amitav Ghosh
Chan Chao. Contact Sheet 109-burma: something went wrong. Light Work, 2000. ISBN: 9780935445183