I completely forgot about this image. I found it by accident on my blog. Looking back at it, it has sort of a surreal harsh quality that I seem to be growing into as a photographer. Nit is a long time sex worker in Bangkok, she started in the bars of Patpong shortly after the Vietnam era and continues to work till this day. I usually do a photo session with her each visit I do to Bangkok thou I missed her the time round as I was working my my Mae Sot and Klong Toey series.
This photo was made with direct flash (rather obvious) Tri-x and a Mamiya C330 twin reflex camera (old school stuff0. I photographed her in a short sex time room we rented. Whenever I photograph her I try to recreate the environment she works in. I want to photograph her in her home environment but she is very protective of that world and I doubt I will be allowed in. She probably has children and even a husband-boyfriend she does not want to share. Nit speaks very good English and is around 45 or so in this photograph. I have known her since 1999 and her age does not seem to go up much as the years pass so she might be older than that here. A fascinating and tough woman that still maintains a certain joy in her life even thou she has been working the foreign tourist sex scene for many decades.
Seeing this photograph again makes me want to go back into the scene and shoot more with Tri-x, direct harsh flash and the twin reflex. Maybe photos like this could the look/feel or my Bangkok show at Toot Yung.
Note* I bumped the contrast in this version of the image. If I ever found the negative (difficult) and decided to print it, I would make the photograph quite contrasty like in this digi sample.
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| Nit freelance sex worker, Bangkok Thailand 2003 |
