The ruins as they were
Black & white photographs of the ancient ruined cities of Sukhothai, Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet as recorded by the late photographer Rabil Bunnag in 1953 will be on show in the exhibition “Imprint of Spirit” running at the Kathmandu Photo Gallery from July 8 to August 26.
The photographs were taken before the ancient monuments were restored and the areas turned into historical parks.
“These photographs are most valuable for study, as they were taken before restoration, so any interested party could use them for comparison, to see how they differ from today’s reality,” the late monk Buddhadasa Bhikku wrote in the foreword to the book ‘Three Old Cities of Siam”, published by Thai Wattana T Sawan Foundation for the Dhamma Dana Foundation, 1971.
Rabil donated more than 100 photographs from this series to Suan Mokkh Monastery in Chaiya, Surat Thani and now the Buddhadasa Indapanno Archives has brought them to Bangkok for preservation and distribution to the public.
Rabil was born in Bangkok in 1902 and finished his studies in Singapore at age 21. He returned home to work for the Botanical Division of the Forestry Department. This enabled him to travel extensively on forest inspection tours all over the country’. Coming upon strange, beautiful flowers, he was inspired to photograph them for study, leading him deeper into photography. After 1937 Rabil left government service to set up the ‘R Bunnag’ photography studio on Silom Road. He later became a lecturer in Pictorial Photography at Bangkok Technical College. Before passing away at the age of 97, Rabil donated some 23,000 photographs of ancient sites and objects to the National Archive.
Find out more about the exhibition at www.KathmanduPhotoBkk.com.
