On to Other Countries?

I might travel to other countries after my Thai photo work is done. The countries at the top of the list are Cambodia, China and Mongolia. I have been to Cambodia several times but have not visited Angkor Wat since 1999, I would like to make photographs in that part of the world again. China and Mongolia are brand new countries for me, I have been to Hong Kong but never been to mainland China.

Two More Photo Sessions to Go

I have enough 8x10 film for two more photo sessions. Tomorrow I have 2 different men scheduled for 2pm and 4pm and then that's it. I will have shot 11 ladyboys, 9 men and 8 women. 28 people photographed over 31 photo sessions.

Mod 23

Was sitting outside on the street in a shortime bar area watching people walk up and down the road. After sitting there for maybe 15 minutes a Thai lady came up from one of the bars and started talking to me.

We sat and talked for over 1 hour about her life and mine, she had worked the bars for 4 months, her name was Mod she was 23 years old and very beautiful.

Mod told me that she did not want to live with any man that the only thing she wanted to do was spend time with her friends, that she felt nothing when sleeping with a man in her heart or sexually.

Mod is an intelligent lady who learned English quickly, her parents were farmers, she worked the bars because her family was poor. Many times I have heard Thais and others say that people who work the bars are to lazy to work hard at a normal job. I do not think that the bar life is the easy way out, it must be so tempting to fall into this life when you can make 10 times or 100 times what you can make working another job.

What kind of life would a woman like Mod have if her family had the money to send her to university. If she had the opportunities I had in my life what could she make of hers?

Nid 6 Years Later

I photographed Nit again tonight in a shortime room over the bar she has worked for the last 6 years. I first met and photographed Nid back in 2003, her eyes have dimmed since then, she looks tired most of the time, and now she has a small rose tattoo over her left breast.

Nid is a sweet lady who can still laugh when I make my silly jokes, I wonder how many more years she can work the bar life before it finally breaks her. Lots of damage has already been done to her emotionally but hopefully physically she can get through this part of her life.

Today before the shoot Nid showed me a cell phone video of a home she was building for her mother and her son and herself in the city of Korat in Northeast Thailand. I was happy to learn today that she was using her money in such a positive way, smart lady.

When I left Nid I told her I would see her next year but I hope she is not working in the bar when I return in 2010.

Long's Story

I photographed Long today again, this time in her room and I learned more about her life.She picked me up on her motorbike today and drove me to her room to make photos. The room rented for about $90 CAD a month was small relatively clean, basically a room with a bed and small washroom and balcony. There was no fridge no air conditioning in the room, it was painted pink and on one wall there were 6 photos of some of her favorite male customers. Long has been working the bars for about 3 years but remains happy and upbeat about her fate. I learned more of her history today, did not understand everything as she only spoke Thai to me, but I got the main points.

- was married to a policeman and had a son with him, he died after drinking and driving a motorcycle. The son is now 7 and lives with Long;s mother up oountry. Every month Long sends money to her mother and son.

- Longs father was a teacher he died from excessive drinking.

- Long came to Bangkok to work at a gas station but did not make enough money to support her mother and child, so when a friend asked her if she was interested working in a bar with farang she accepted.

- She was almost 3 months pregnant with a Japanese customers baby (he was 65 Long was now 25) when the Japanese man had a heart attack on the airplane and died after arriving in Thailand, Long had an abortion (7000 baht) after his death, and then prayed to Lord Buddha for forgiveness.

- She recently met a Farang male customer who promised to marry her, guy named Kevin from Australia (saw his photos and emails translated from English to Thai, Long cannot read English). Kevin has not called or written her for 7 months, Long told me she cried a lot. Emails were filled with sweet talk to her about love and such, and at the same time was talking about about the other women he had been with in Thailand when he was with her. The emails were basically a bunch of lies, example:

" I am not a butterfly, I only had 3 women when I was in Thailand, I liked you the best, I miss laying next to your warm sexy body. Love Kevin XXXXXXXX "

Butterfly= a man who sleeps with many ladies

Guess this Kevin guy spent 10 days in Thailand and 1 night with Long.

I volunteered to send an email to this fellow with Longs phone number etc. to try and reestablish contact.

Kevin sort of looked like a biker, big tough with a bald head and goatee style beard. Long is a small girl well under 5 feet and 38 kilos, this man was at least 280pounds and tall.

One interesting part of her room was that her bed was covered with stuffed toy dolls/animals. At one point in our talk she showed me how she hugged the dolls and how each had a name that corresponded with the name of the man who had given it to her.

I always wanted to try to make a documentary film about the life of a person in the bar scene, maybe at some future date I can try to do it with Long. I wish I had a video camera to record our talk today.

A Room Full of Ladyboys

When I first came to Thailand in 1996 I remember being nervous and uncomfortable around ladyboys. Flash froward 13 years to today when I had 3 ladyboys in front of my camera in the studio, laughing and joking and making good photographs. The 3 ladyboys were Jiji, Fai and Apple, all quite photogenic.

I tried to photograph a series of dypics, I want to place two vertical large photographs side by side in one frame and create one work from two photographs.

Bla's Room

Photographed Bla in her room today. The room was hot and small with a spinning ceiling fan,it had not been painted for decades and was dirty. During the shoot Bla found a rather large cockroach which she swept out the door with a magazine. The room rented for about $5 CAD a day, Bla shared the room with another Thai girl who does not work as a prostitute.

I photographed her in various areas of the room, she had a dog toy and a bird toy that sang, there were no batteries for the bird toy Bla wanted to hear it sing again and asked me if I had any batteries.

Nice sweet girl who laughed and told jokes with me but who lived in a terrible place doing terrible things. When I cut my leg during the shoot Bla put some cream on the scraped skin for me. She said she often brought farang males back her room for shortime sex, some of the farang had sex with her then left the room without paying.

Drunk

Was at a McDonalds today where I saw a farang male about 35 years old so drunk he could barely walk. If it was not so pathetic it would have been funny to watch him stumble about holding his little plastic McDonalds bag. What was really weird was that even thou he could barely stand he still approached 3 working girls on the street after he had picked up his meal.

Photographing Bla Again

Bla a lady worker I have photographed several times keeps asking me to photograph her again. Bla is a nice sweet lady but not attractive, she is thin looks sickly and is desperately trying to make money. She cannot find any customers and has been arrested by the police several times, she now is down to pawning her cell phone (for $9.00) for some cash.

I will photograph her in daily room that she rent for 40 baht a day ($1.30 CAD).

Nurse or Girlfriend??

Saw two couples today in two different restaurants. Each couple included a man in his late 70s or early 80s and a Thai woman about 30 years old. The man in both cases was basically an invalid, I have seen couples like these before, I have never been quite sure if the girl in this relationship was a girlfriend or nursemaid. Maybe she is a combination of both, maybe she nurses him and also provides a trusting relationship as well as a sexual one at times.