The camera makes its mark

WIT ARIYASRIWATANA is an architect by profession but he’s always loved books, movies, every kind of music, biking and travel – and art, especially photography. The man never leaves home without a camera. So when an exhibition of his work, “The Journey Continues...”, opens on Monday at the WTF Gallery, expect a world of sensations.
Monday also happens to be Wit’s birthday, so maybe there’ll be cake as well.
It’s one of three interesting photo exhibitions opening around Bangkok next week.
Wit’s late father, Dr Wichai Ariyasriwatana, inspired him to take up photography as a child. He still has his first Nikon F, though it no longer functions. Not to worry because he’s collected all sorts of cameras over the years. His favourite nevertheless remains his father’s Nikon 50mm f/1.4, which he used regularly with a Canon Eos 5D.
Wit is putting on display dozen of photos with a variety of subjects. Close friends including activist artist Vasan Sitthiket, fellow architect Praditchya Singharaj, Elle Decor Thailand editor Rungsima Kasikranund, fashion photographer Punsiri Siriwetchapun, rocker Thanachai Ujjin of Modern Dog and singer-songwriter Tul Waitoonkiat of Apartment Khunpa did the selecting.
Arranged by Wuttinun Jinsiriwanich, Wit’s debut exhibition covers a cycling trip with friends to Nakhon Ratchasima, rock concerts, journeys overseas and everyday life.
On Thursday the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre opens another pair of photo exhibitions that actually meld together on the fifth floor. The Goethe Institut is sponsoring both.
“The City. Becoming and Decaying”, spanning Floors 3 to 5, begins with a guided tour by two of the photographers, husband and wife Ute and Werner Mahler. They and 16 other German artists represented by the agency Ostkreuz will present more than 100 photos taken in cities around the world. The tour was intended to discover “the essence of contemporary urban reality”.
Ostkreuz, founded shortly after Germany was reunified, has become the country’s most successful agency for artists, primarily photographers, the 18 co-founders almost all winners of national or international awards. The “City” exhibition marked the agency’s 20th anniversary in 2010 and has been on tour ever since.
Even before the Bangkok show opens, the Mahlers will give a free lecture, in English, on “Portrait Photography” this Sunday at 2pm in the first-floor Multifunction Room.
Sharing the fifth floor will be the Exhibition of the German Photo Book Awards 2014, a collection of 21 photo books that earned the gold or silver awards from the German Association of Publishers and Booksellers in Baden-Wurttemberg.
The covers range through the competition’s four categories – conceptual-artistic books, history/theory of photography, photography textbooks and coffee-table books. On the jury were seasoned photographers, magazine columnists, graphic designers and booksellers, making their call based on concept, print quality, special techniques, composition and an “excellent command of beauty”.
Among the winning coffee-table books is “Heiliges Indien” (“Holy India”), published by Editor Panorama, in which Amit Pasricha offers stunning vistas of India. In “Sturm” (“Storm”), published by Prestel, Mitch Dobrowner presents his dramatic shots from an area known as “tornado alley”.
This is the third consecutive year the award-winning German photo books have been shown in Thailand.