
Ever have one of those moments that strongly reminds you of a movie? I had one of those not long ago. I was in Vientiane, Laos, across the Mekong from Thailand.
I’ve always been interested in the spectrum of sexual identities and in Thailand observations are more easily made than elsewhere. Ladyboys, or Kathoey are quite common and are referred to as the Third Sex. Somewhere betwixt and between a male and female, their appearance can be quite stunning. As far as I can tell, anything between growing long hair and wearing feminine clothing to full on sexual reassignment surgery counts. As if someone were counting. I’m not.
(Rollover the images to compare.)


So, being the naturally inquisitive person that I am, I went online and met Angie and asked if we could trade her time for my photographs for her portfolio. She models, and sadly also works as an escort. She doesn’t want to be an escort, but the modeling pays very little and being an escort a considerable sum more. Especially since she is a full post-op ladyboy. I take it that that is a little bit rarer in amongst the very large population of ladyboys in Thailand. So, an impromptu meeting was set up and we shot for an hour or so. I was quite taken aback by her appearance. (more…)
He’s a little gaunt, maybe even severe. And he salutes me—and I don’t get saluted often. Hardly ever. I guess that’s not surprising. So on my first jet-lagged day in Bangkok I was a bit caught off guard to find myself saluted by a very serious man dressed suspiciously like a police officer.

What was it? Maybe my shaved head, suggesting military? Maybe It’s the two-toned, collared shirt that I’m wearing. If you are somewhat color blind and squint at it a bit, you might think it was one of the military shirts worn by the guards at the US Embassy, which is just down the road from my hotel. Head, shirt, both, neither. I couldn’t tell.

I’m experimenting with long exposures and am particularly happy with the way the color palette is rendered in this image. The faint pastel colors remind me a bit of the hand-painted black and white images of yesteryear. I have a photograph of my mother when she was a young girl, probably 4 or 5 years old, that is hand painted. It’s gorgeous. The rendering of paint on a silver halide print doesn’t look like a darkroom or digital print; it has a certain depth that comes from having layers of material worked one into another. I think I could successfully print this image. I don’t think it would have the character of that photograph of my mother. Please click to enlarge.
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Bangkok Panorama:
I’ve been spending a lot of time in Lumpini Park in Bangkok. I workout and get great Thai massages there, test camera hardware and workflows, and endure the endless playing of PSY’s Gangnam Style by the guy in charge of the PA system (used for the huge aerobics classes held after work hours). I heard it eleven times yesterday. Catchy tune. The first time. Or second. Hmmm, never thought of earplugs as being a necessary photographic accessory until now…