Immortalising Phuket

“To photograph is to immortalise,” the late photographer Saengjun Limlohakul said in 1994. “You press the shutter and record on film what is already past.”
The Phuket native, who died in 1997, captured Thailand’s historical moments for five decades as well as his hometown of Phuket in its last tin-mining days. His subjects included everything, from the islanders’ peaceful life to the American-style strip clubs of the Vietnam War era, before the tourist boom arrived to change their whole world.
Dozens of black and white photographs will be on display at Kathmandu Photo Gallery in a new exhibition that opens this Saturday at 6.30pm.
This collection of previously unexhibited work has been printed from the original negatives in the care of Somchai Bamrungwong.
The mini retrospective is part of the “Seeking Forgotten Thai Photographers” project on neglected artists hitherto unrecorded by Thai photographic history.
Earlier shows have focused on the works of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, Pornsak Sakdaenprai, Liang Ewe and SH Lim (Vivat Pitayaviriyakul)
“I photograph everything, both for clients and for myself, in every style. The sky, the ground, the stars, the moon, clouds backlit by the sun, floods, fires, car crashes, houses, buildings – I’ve shot from planes many times; even experimented in the cinema, photographing the pictures on the screen. The one thing I won’t shoot is dead people, especially messy corpses. I won’t even look at those. I’m not superstitious – I just don’t find it appealing in any way,” Saengjun said in an interview.


The show runs February 23. For more information visit www.kathmandu-bkk.com.