DmitriM
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justruss wrote:
I'd call BS on this, with a twist of early 20th Century Nat Geo Mag colonialism tossed in the mix.
If you can't find anything "amazing and unique" to photograph in the very first place you set down in Thailand-- probably Bangkok-- then you haven't looked. Real life, with real people, is going on all around. (Just like, mind you, in any European big city or village, or American big city or village...)
What do you expect? People living in Thailand to eschew development so that you can take a photo of them living an idealized, "primitive and undeveloped" photogenic life that looks "amazing and unique" to your friends back home who have no grasp of the place and expect a postcard view of a world in which ethnic Thais all walk around in Kachin traditional clothing all day despite this being a totally impossible reality?
You expect Phuket, Phi-Phi... or Myrtle Beach to remain outside the scope of capitalism, commerce, and materialism-- while contributing to exactly these things by falling for and indulging the myth of the undeveloped, secrete beach getaway? I'm guessing you want the myth of the totally undeveloped-- and the convenience of being in the totally undeveloped where there also happens to be English speaking people and places for you to eat and sleep up to some kind of non-local standard?
The story of new vs. old, of a complex city with a crush of various incomes and affluences, of crazy urban development, of materialism and tourism and real plodding life-- everything!-- is in Bangkok alone. The rest of the country too has its Empire State buildings, and its corners you'll be lucky to bump into another tourist, or find a place to sleep like you'd expect.
Thailand is colorful, and vibrant, and changing, and challenging. Not to mention politically and socially all over the place and in a major time of transition and uncertainty. If a photographer can't find the amazing and unique and compelling to photograph-- I think the only thing lacking is the vision of the photographer.
It's true, if you go hoping to find a reality from a postcard (anywhere), expect to be disappointed. Those postcards are all composites, re-touched, and imbued with the fantasies of the North Atlantic middle class view of a paradise that doesn't include local people with their own needs, desires, longings, and humanity. Hell, I might say this about a lot of places, and a lot of what passes as "photography" these days in terms of how our view of the world has become distorted (which is why I will never believe in 'shopping in a better sky to your photograph).
Thailand, like the rest of SEA, is dynamic-- and real. It's funny how our view can become so twisted that it is exactly these qualities that cause some people to see the opposite! ...Show more →
Wow, what's with the anger and attitude?
It's my opinion. And no, I hardly find any city beautiful as my perception of beauty is different than perhaps you have and THAT'S OK... You should accept it as well that some people don't see the world as you do.
I've been to so many countries, I have something to compare and over development and the introduction of mass tourism in Thailand in the last 5 years have a negative impact on the country in certain areas. And as I've been and lived in Thailand I probably know more about it than an average tourist who goes on a beach, then tourist pub, gets drunk and comes back home in a few weeks.
And if you are not aware of how mass tourism can destroy and have a negative impact on certain countries and communities, there's certainly no need to get angry when someone mentions that. Like the fact there are communities in Thailand that want to be left alone, yet tourists keep going there to take pictures since for them it's a "zoo". 5 years ago there would be 1 person in a week and now there would be up to 100.
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