I visited Mingun’s most striking pagoda in the heat of a Burmese noon, which ruled out using morning or evening light to help express my feelings about this temple. I decided to frame the pagoda within an archway to give a sense of depth and perspective to the image. Yet I did so with misgivings. Framing subjects through archways is a time-honored technique that, while not bad or wrong, has become a cliché. So I did what I usually do. I waited for a person to move into my foreground. A Burmese woman soon stopped for a moment in the shade of the arch to adjust her sun turban. As she reached out to wrap the turban around her head, I made this image. Now it tells a story. Because I have abstracted her by turning her into a silhouette, she becomes a symbol for every visitor. We can now imagine what it must feel like to walk out of the shade into the blistering heat to visit this almost 200-year-old Buddhist pagoda rising on its seven concentric terraces in the distance. Instead of making a cliché, I have made a photo that invites you to join this vicarious experience.