Bagan

When American photographer Richard Renaldi came upon a group of girls wearing vividly patterned dresses and hats during a recent visit to Burma, he thought he might have a good shot. Best known for his street portraits of strangers, Renaldi assumed the group was dressed for a special outing to the 11th-century Shwesandaw Pagoda—a popular attraction in a country that finally opened to tourism in 2012 after decades of political sanctions.

“Seeing these girls reminded me of how people around the world dress for special occasions,” says Renaldi, who won a Guggenheim Fellowship this year. “It made me nostalgic for how my own family once dressed up for something even as ordinary as airplane travel."