Dignity in a Portrait

People are always asking you to explain why you photograph this or that, it is rather annoying actually as the pictures if they are good enough should be self explanatory.

I have been thinking about these large format portraits (Thai Portrait Project), am thinking about why I want to make these images. It is almost like it is a responsibility to record with dignity the people I find. A man who spends his life working driving a tuk tuk or farming some field so that his children can go to school and so that his parents can eat and be safe deserves a portrait that shows his dignity.

I think the reason I want to make these photographs is because most often these people are forgotten, they are swallowed up by time. If a record is made it is almost like a piece of them lives on and the dignity in which they lived their lives is remembered.

Now if I can just learn the technique needed to make the images!! My first 4 or 5 attempts at available light 8x10 portraiture have been abysmal failures. I might switch to 4x5 cameras and maybe include flash to make the technical part a bit easier to deal with.

Name for the project? "Khon Thai" (The Thai People) simple and direct. Something like this will take years of effort and hard work, maybe I am getting ahead of myself, I think you have to start out small and see where it leads. Maybe I can try photographing a group of people, like Monks, or Muay Thai Boxers or Taxi Drivers, and move on from there. If you look at the big picture, at this huge body of work it is sort of unattainable but if you do things one series at a time you might be able to reach your goals.

Even the longest journey begins with a single step.