It’s not the Hangover 2 type of city, unless you want it to be. Our path lead us to or through the city numerous times.
Stories of Bangkok I ♥
Going?Digital&Online
July 22, 2018
Thaipusam
August 25, 2018MY STORY
BANGKOK
It’s the city of lights, kingdom of colors and a sphere of many faces where everyone is working like a bee. It’s in this neck of the woods for artists and businessmen my photography fairytale began. I have stories as different as apples and oranges.
Bangkok greeted us fiercely upon our entry to S/SE Asia affair. The massive flooding had been showing nature’s worst for the third month. While central Bangkok was still in shape at the time, I still believed photo workshop was about to begin.
But nature takes its own course and this time was no exception – I nearly dismissed my Bangkok lessons due to higher power and started to look for other opportunities down the road.
Ten weeks later situation looked more promising. On Sathorn Pier by the Chao Phraya river we met. During almost official yet pleasant conversation with Mr Gavin Gough, he surprised me with my first task.
I was trying to learn how to blend in, to feel the street and capture it on memory card. With Mr G’s no-BS-straight-to-the-point style, flavored with unique sense of humor, we had soon recorded what I had in mind, quite challenging. Story in action, blended with a fraction of my inner thoughts about the day and moment.
Mr G showed me perfect places, small rooms, chambers almost, where I could play and catch those rays that managed to squeeze through a tiny porthole below the ceiling. Again success hadn’t come lightly, but if you’re willing to get your hands (and pants) dirty, you’re off to a rewarding start. The atmosphere was perfect.
Lack of experience is best compensated with guidance and critique, Mr G was like a doc with a syringe.
Seamlessly leading me through bags of knowledge, rainbow of shooting conditions, angles to try out and showing me how to seal it with my own essence – thoughts, reflections, emotions, how to embed myself into photos. I was getting the taste of it with no pain.
I felt like the long wait for this day was paying off. Markets, colors, fruits, flowers, veggies, smiling people, arrays of light, leafs of shadows, fish, crabs, shells you name it.
I was given a quick briefing – with a twist – to tell a story, but to try and catch the protagonist in a sunlight.
Confidence with which Mr G had been leading the show, must have rubbed on me, too. I felt like he was assigning me tasks wirelessly – around just when I needed help, pointers or a tap on my left arm for not holding the camera correctly.
Help was swiftly around especially when I stumbled upon a technical crunch.
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.” by Yogi Berra, NY Yankee.
The difference was almost tangible, not in photos alone but in the mind-shift. I was beginning to understand Mr Gough better, I started to understand what he was trying to teach me – how to grab a bull by its horns, so that image will radiate what I want.
My evaluation of a recorded photo was improving as a consequence. Of course I wanted my photos to be as expressive as possible, but I finally saw which path to follow. I was learning how to express my feelings trough the lens. Life of a traveler.
So I plunged into the colors of a food market. Vibration of the place took my focus away.
Knowing how to connect opens a load of opportunities to make photos – great ones, too. Photographing a stranger doesn’t have to be borderline stealing. Show some interest, ask for permission and you’re half way there.
Even though I usually have problems with being to silent while working, I also don’t feel so comfortable around strangers. So I went on, out of my comfort zone as much and as many times possible and became Mr G’s copycat – after all I went traveling to explore new cultures, stories and myself.
I followed instructions and played the same game as before – some effort, some chit- chatting and fun. At the end of it I found myself very much into mosaic of community with all its splendor and misery.
Thinking back of those days even today, after many years, I see new perspectives. Correlations between camera, emotions and thoughts are boundless.
Secret button on each camera lies in its powers – the way to communicate with people, to reveal stories.
The world is portraying for you – half-press to focus and there you go.
Today my favorite quote is by St. Francis of Assisi: “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
Mismas behind the screen (Bangkok 2011-2015)
Behind the frame Mr William Albert Allard
Photo: Mrs Tun Jaiyen, Mr Gavin Gough