Curating The Show

My new word of the day is curating, something the Kaasa people said I have to do. Curating is rather an exotic way to explain what I will be doing. I will take the prints down to the Jubilee Auditorium and I will tell the installers what order to put them up in, that's the extent of my curatorial duties!

As to ordering the prints I was thinking of that while agitating a print (3 minutes of thinking time!). I came up with an idea for the basic layout of the show. I want the photographs the exhibition to tell a small story, the idea is to put the pictures in an order that will have a beginning, middle and end. The story idea is for the viewer to come away with a basic understanding of peoples lives in Klong Toey slum.

The order I plan is as follows.

1) A write up introduction mounted to the wall that explains the basic history of Klong Toey along with a explanation of the strange show title.

2) The first 4 or 5 photographs will be landscapes with little or no people in them. I want to set up the environment the people of Klong Toey slum live in. After I establish a base, a world the people come from, it will help the viewer identify and understand the portraits better.

3) After the landscapes I will show wider 35mm shots of Klong Toey people involved in their daily lives.

4) I will then start with the environmental 35mm style portraits.

5) Finally I will move to the 4x5 full, 3/4, 1/2 body portraits and then the headshots.

By the time the visitor goes around the entire gallery and reaches the closeup heads they should have a better understanding of the lives of the people of Klong Toey slum.