Introduction
Bangkokians is the result of five years of
taking street portraits all over Bangkok, from
the slums of Khlongtoey to the alleyways of
Chinatown. We street photographers have it
easy here; Bangkokians love to be
photographed and there is very little of the
kind of resistance one encounters in other
parts of the world.
The focus of the book is not on the glamorous
parts of the city, the shopping malls, the
skyscrapers, the tourist hotspots. It's more
about the city's underclass, the people tourists
and middle-class Thais tend to ignore - the
market sellers, the slum dwellers, the street
kids, the immigrant labourers. The people
whose friendliness, whose patience whilst this
weird farang points his camera at them, make
photographing in this city such a joy. This
book is dedicated to them, with thanks.