Part 2: Thailand. My 5 favourite images and the stories behind them

I found thailand a lot more difficult to photograph than Nepal. I still haven't quite figured out why. I think it is a mixture of various factors. Thailand shares many western sensibilities that are similar with home. The way cities are formed, the type of architecture utilised, the way the spaces in between are left. McDonald M's and KFC signs illuminate in the darkness and huge billboards advertising Germans cars line not just city streets but country roads. Sure, there are stories here to be found, but you have to look harder. I was searching more in Thailand for photographs, whereas in Nepal it seemed to come more naturally to me. I also think getting into the rhythm of shooting every day made me far more selective with what I decided to photograph, dismissing perhaps average opportunities rather than taking the shot. Shooting everyday your eye becomes more discerning, your mind subconsciously weighing the shot in mind. The heat and humidity had an affect too. Some days I felt like a vegetable in the mid 30 degree heat, my senses dulled, connecting A to B sometimes feeling like an insurmountable task.

Over the course of my time in Thailand, a peculiar thing happened with my approach to taking photos. I started to take far more portrait shots of landscapes. I had made mental and physical changes to change the way I was shooting - goals set to improve myself - but this wasn't one of them. This was born out of spontaneity. In truth looking back through decade old photographs it was always there, but somewhere along the line I moved to making just landscapes. I found shooting in portrait mode enabled me to get in closer to objects that interested me, displaying a clarity and focus that had been sharpened over the course of two months shooting.

This was taken on one such day where my brain had turned into mush. It was the first day I had really suffered with the heat and humidity. Kanchanaburi sits just north west of Bangkok, but the difference in the type of heat and humidity between the two felt extreme. It was hot. My T-shirt soaked through with sweat with the littlest of effort. I was metaphorically kicking the can down the street in frustration. I couldn't think clearly, I stank, sweat sat on my skin as though my body could not absorb any more water. I hadn't taken any photos of note, I was struggling for inspiration. The beauty of photography however is that can quickly turn on its head by walking around a corner. A lot of the side streets in Thailand are full of interesting details. The arrange of items, how they are stacked or left, they all tell the stories of how people live their lives. But it takes time to come across a combination of items, an array of colours or a composition that pops out at you. Here I was drawn to the yellows and pale reds that sit across the scene, how the yellow light falls onto the yellow roof rack, bedsheets and of course the tiger print shawl. The yellows in the scene are divided equally by the the reds of the pale red wall, the roofing and satellite dish, also reflecting of the bed sheets, merging with the yellows. The subtlety of it just grabbed me straight away. The blues of the piping and work stations carving through the image and tying it together. Instead of kicking the can down the street in frustration I now felt like throwing it up far into the air. For the rest of the journey back home I went home with a spring in my step.

As with wanting to expand my portfolio with portrait shots, I also wanted to shoot wider shots of environments, allowing a scene to develop and exist. I wanted to show more, and work on a larger scale than I had been working over the last few years. I have tried to make photographs on this scale several times before but I think there are more elements to consider and fall into place to make a good photograph. It never quite worked out before. I struck lucky with this photograph. The scene itself was relatively simple to frame and set up, but timing is crucial in making it sit right. I think every person in this photograph is involved in their own world, mainly through the use of their phones, but there is action everywhere, and using a quick shutter speed I was able to freeze that. This photo was taken at Earwan waterfalls, an idyllic peaceful place just outside Kanchanaburi. As you can see, it is popular with tourists, but climbing up the tiers (8 of them) of waterfalls was a good day out. The shallow waters of each tier giving you an opportunity to bathe and refresh you from the unrelenting humidity.

The more you walk around with your camera, the more you realise that scenes just happen to present themselves to you. This was one such scene, one that I could walk around and always find something interesting about it to photograph. Like Nepal, a lot of peoples lives in Thailand is displayed out in the open, there is always someone tinkering away with something, socialising or taking some time to get away from everything and have a nap. It is also where a lot of people make their living, be it from the hundreds of street food stalls, lottery ticket or trinket sellers. Their is also a fix it and take care of it attitude in these two countries as well, I guess because people are far poorer here. You forget that the computers and cameras we use for example are luxuries, luxuries that we take for granted. Walking the streets of Thailand and Nepal is in some ways like taking a step back in time, repairman will be fixing decade old tvs, those big black 4:3 monstrosities that existed in the 90's. Wires, motherboards, half broken computers, can be seen piled up in shop windows or doorways. There is always a use for something, perhaps more so in Nepal, but nothing is seemingly thrown to waste, there is always a use for something. Whilst I could walk around this scene, my lens wasn't wide enough to shoot from those angles, as with the images in the last blog update, the wind gently lifted the yellow rag giving the image an extra something. I find the image pleasing, comforting, perhaps its reminds me of the working harbours around Cornwall.

Thailand is a country that is in a constant motion of moving forward, a constant state of transformation. The tinkering that goes on along Thailand streets exists on a national scale as its constantly strives towards modernisation and its future. You are never far away from a large scale development project, be it new hotels, roads or general infrastructure. Phuket is full of such development. It pushes in each direction, pushes up to the very edges, seizing any room it can fit into, up against the gentle rolling waves of it's shoreline or the thick trunks and foliage of the jungle inland. Phuket's popularity with tourists means that it is the wealthiest state in Thailand, but its environments betray that fact. Until now. Phuket, away from Patong at least, as remained relatively untouched, a delightful mixture of ramshackle huts and large paradisiac plants fighting over each other. However the wealth that is being generated by the millions of people that visit the area each year is now being pumped into 5 star resorts and luxury accommodation. They are popping up in thier hundreds, a series of construction sites line the coast, all seemingly funded by Russian or Swedish money which leads to, as a photographer, many interesting scenes but also potentially many interesting stories to tell. How do Thai people feel about this? How does this affect their lives?

I chose this image because it reminds how vibrant young Thai people are, but also how eccentric Thailand is. It is a country that tingles with excitement, and is bursting with positivity and creativity. The photograph was taken at Chatuchak weekend market, a huge sprawling city of stalls selling everything and anything you wish to buy. The market is made up of a network of streets (Soi's) which you can just fit about two abreast down, you can just wander to your hearts content, choosing which direction to go in next, left, right, carry on. It's up to you. After an hour of wandering, maybe even two there is a fair chance that you wouldn't have doubled back on your self and visited the same place twice. Each street has its own aura, its own feel, smell and array of colours. I actually enjoyed shopping for once!

Fashion is a huge facet of modern Thai life, the image of the self plays out around you all the time, people taking selfies is almost epidemic. Peering over the shoulders of people whilst crammed into a carriage on Bangkok's mono rail, Instagram is likely to be the app that is in use, people scrolling through idols, clothing, and the aesthetically pleasing. There is no denying that western influence permeates Thai life, and in many ways you can feel and see the world getting smaller but there is a real sense that their youth have met that half way and made something that they can call their own, owning it and forging a new direction from the mix of different cultures to form a new identity. For all the time you see them looking at themselves, in truth they are actually driven by being social, they eat out together, the food stalls and markets a perfect place to socialise, share food and talk about life with enthuasim, it is something that we could learn a lot from. They're able to put down their mobile phone and get to the heart of what living is.

If you like to view more images, please look back through my blog. Thanks for reading over the last two months, hopefully I can take photos and write about new countries sometime soon.

All the best, Joel