Not sure if I have posted this image before, I have posted a closer composed variation of it. I was looking for photos to use while playing around with learning the Platinum-Pallaidium printing process and came upon this image today.
Here is the photo story:
Khun (Mr.) Bia is a very kind and extremely friendly man I met while working on the photo series THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY in Klong Toey Slum, Bangkok Thailand. Bia is about my age, he lives in a old wooden shack with 2 rooms that has a cardboard roof. Bia lives in one room, the second room is used by a person I never got the chance to meet. The room is tiny, I am using an extremely wide angle lens and was standing in the doorway as I made the picture.
It was rainy season when this photo was made so every night the rain was pouring down on his shack and would find its way through the cardboard roof and onto his bed as he slept. You can see in the photo that he has an open umbrella set up to help with the rain. Meanwhile I was living in a cozy a/c hotel just down the road, maybe 400 meters from him. Our lives are so different, I am so privileged. Bia lived this way and yet was filled with so much friendliness and joy whenever we met. He would talk and talk and tell me stories in Thai beyond my fluency but it did not matter. What a kind man.
Bia loves the royal family and the various kings of Thailand. The photos you see to the right on the table are all pictures of the current king and queen, along with other photos of many former kings of Thailand. Love for the royal family by the poorest of the poor in Thailand is very common. He spoke to me in glowing terms of how good the king was and how much he loved him.
I offered Khun Bia some money to help but he refused. He had an ancient truck that must have been over 60 years old that he drove in Bangkok traffic and used for work, he did not want my money. Later on I offered him money a second time, just before I left Thailand. This time he reluctantly accepted but he insisted on giving me in return an old digital camera he had. I now have that camera on a ledge in my Edmonton darkroom, I look at it often and think of Khun Bia. I miss him.
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| Khun Bia in Palladium |
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| Khun Bia 55 in his room, THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY, Klong Toey Slum, Bangkok, Thailand 2019 |
