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Peter Nitsch is an international award winning photographer and designer who has split his life between Munich, Germany and Thailand over the past decade.

His latest exhibition is called Shophouses 4×8 m Bangkok, where he explores the relationship between business and home of Bangkok residents through photographs. This is definitely something as a photographer I am very interested in as the little shops scattered around Bangkok and all over Thailand are a treat to photograph.

Peter’s work speaks for itself as just last year this same exhibit won honorable mention at the Los Angles International Photography Awards. I had a chance to pick Peter’s brain a little about his work and the upcoming exhibition in Bangkok.

Talen: How long have you been a photographer?

Peter Nitsch: As a professional photographer since 1999/2000. But I have been taking photographs just for fun since I have been a Teenager, well, now almost 20 years ago. Gee, I can’t believe that time has rushed that quickly …

Talen: What are your favorite subjects to photograph?

Peter Nitsch: Some years ago I started focusing on strictly so called art photography in the urban environment.

Talen: As an amateur photographer I am always interested in what other photographers are using. What gear do you use and did you use anything special when working on the shophouse photos?

Peter Nitsch: I like to keep it simple: Analogue – One old Hasselblad V system with 100 and 50 mm objective, Gitzo Titanium tripod (superlight and super expensive, but worth when traveling a lot, because it’s so light), Digital – One Canon EOS 5D Mark II and EOS 1D Mark II, fixed lenses 100 and 50 mm. I really don’t use any other wide-angle or superzoom. Further a small point and shoot Canon G5 and since one year I like to take snippets with my iPhone just for fun. In a few months I will set up a section on my website showing every week a new iPhone photo …

Talen: Many of us have fallen in love with Thailand and visit often or live there, what drew you to Thailand?

Peter Nitsch: My wife, she’s from Bangkok and I met her back in 2000 in Munich/Germany, while working on a design project. She’s a industrial designer. Through her eyes I travelled to Thailand the first time and immediately fell in love with Thailand her family and now I’m positively glued to Thailand like Sticky Rice with Mango. Way back in the old school days I have been enthused to Chinese kung-fu films and Asia in general. I think I’m more Asian than European …

Talen: Living between Germany and Thailand must be a great joy. What are some of the upsides and downsides of this dual lifestyle?

Peter Nitsch: I love to live and work in both countries. For me there’s nothing real up and down, as far as I can say up to now.

Talen: You have won international awards as both a designer and a photographer, has either of these fields pushed you harder to excell more in the other or do they both exist in harmony for you?

Peter Nitsch: For my kind of work it’s a perfect symbiosis, like left and right hand. You both use them for different things, one more than the other, and sometimes you use them together as one to grab things more tightly.

Talen: You have a show coming up in Bangkok in early August called Shophouses, what was the inspiration behind this series of photographs?

Peter Nitsch: To show arrangements that have developed from the necessities of everyday life and work on just 4 x 8 metres, the dimension of an average Bangkok shophouse, which is mostly crammed full to the last centimeter. I like that! A quote of the German Author Regina Moths describes it more detailed than I can do: “In Peter Nitsch’s photos, the visual appearance creates an almost physical sensation of constriction, which is followed by an ever-present awareness of improvisation.

One bumps one’s western elbows against the seamless transitions between the breadwinning, commercial or service providing products and our own carefully preserved sphere of personal privacy … Thus, Peter Nitsch manages to keep a balance of intimacy and behind the curtain views, which tell a thousand enchanting tales, yet he simultaneously insists on maintaining a distance in order to preserve everyone’s dignity:  Both the observer and the observed.”

Talen: Can you tell us a little about the gallery where your exhibition will be taking place and what dates the show will be on?

Peter Nitsch:  It´s a perfect coincidence, the images will be shown in the Kathmandu Gallery (87 Pan Road, Silom, 10500 Bangkok, Thailand, www.kathmandu-bkk.com) which is itself wonderfully-restored old pre-war Shophouse and is located near the Indian (Sri Mariamma) Temple in Bangkok’s financial district.

One could say SHOPHOUSES in a Shophouse. The owner, a Thai photo-artist Manit Sriwanichpoom, is a wonderful photography artist himself! For the exhibition I want to thank Miss Elke Tiedt and Marco Merten from the German Embassy Bangkok, who have been willing to support the exhibition.

The Shophouse exhibition will be on the following dates:

PRE-OPENING
Speech by German Ambassador Dr. Hanns Schumacher
07/08/2010 (from 6.30 – 9 pm)

EXHIBITION
07/08/2010 – 26/09/2010

Talen: Will you have photographs or prints available for purchase?

Peter Nitsch: Yes, there are 37 photographs available for purchase. In the exhibition I will show 13 images as prints, the biggest one will be 180 x 180 cm, twelve of them in 70 x 70 cm and the other ones will be smaller sizes.

Talen: What does the future hold for Peter Nitsch, will there be more Bangkok exhibitions?

Peter Nitsch: I’m not sure, but there will be some upcoming exhibitions in Europe next year, with a new topic. And I’m planing to expand my website and some special projects exclusively available for the iPhone and iPad.

I’d like to thank Peter for letting me pick his brain and if you would like more information on Peter’s work you can visit his web site at  http://www.peternitsch.com/.

For more information on the upcoming exhibition and the Kathmandu Gallery itself  you can visit http://www.kathmandu-bkk.com/.

I’ll definitely be checking this exhibition out in September…

Bangkok Besieged

Instead of adding more commentary and opinion this week I think it’s best to let the story be told in pictures.

It is both maddening and saddening to see the Thai on Thai violence that has taken place this week in Bangkok and elsewhere throughout Thailand. It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words but in this case I would say these pictures are worth a thousand heartbreaks or more. All of the following pictures come from AP, Reuters and the BBC; some of the following pictures are very graphic in nature.

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Martyn over at Beyond the Mango Juice wrote an excellent post entitled Red Red Whine about rural Thai’s and just what little amount of money they actually live on. He ended the post with a challenge for anyone living in Thailand to try and live on 170 baht a day. The post has really opened up a great discussion in the comments section that got me to thinking.

Obviously as a westerner any of us would find it hard to get by on any more than the basic necessities out of 170 baht a day. We would basically be able to eat and drink water. Self sustaining but not much more and with no overhead for emergencies or shelter we would most definitely be living in card board boxes. But, here’s the thing, as I pointed out most rural Thai’s own their own land, grow their own food,  have at least a motorcycle, have TV’s, DVD players, etc.  Now this isn’t representative of all rural Thai’s but I would say it isn’t far off the mark. Obviously some regions are poorer than others.

Martyn’s post and the many great comments it received really had me wondering how the Thai’s I have seen in Rural Thailand do it? While they aren’t living by Western standards they are doing much better than the Western poor I have seen my whole life. At least one comment brought up the girls working in the sex industry sending money home, and yes, that definitely plays a role in rural Thailand but with less than 4% of all Thai women working in the sex industry that can’t account for what I’ve seen.

I can only speak to the rural Thailand I have seen in Nakhon Phanom, That Phanom and Mukdahan. Mukdahan is a very poor province and the town is very small. The people there Don’t have a lot but they do have homes, a farm, shop or some sort of business and generally make enough to take care of the necessities. A fair many cars and motorcycles are owned in Mukdahan and of course every Thai owns a cell phone. I have also seen quite a few old computers, stereos, karaoke machines and the like at many Thai homes I’ve visited.

Nakhon Phanom though is quite another matter. A large city in comparison to Mukdahan and a much better standard of living for the most part. Many Westerners would still see the majority of people here as poor, but maybe they aren’t looking closely enough. Walk through the cities center on any given day and you will see what I mean. While, as a city, it lags far behind Bangkok,  for the most part these poor people who depend on farming, fishing and flowers as their main export seem to have everything you could need as a Westerner.

I went through my pictures of a stroll I took through town one day and I knew I had a few examples but I was shocked as I looked deeper at just how much business is done in Nakhon Phanom. Appliance stores, cell phone shops, new car dealerships and on and on. I wasn’t shocked that they had them because obviously I had seen them …I was shocked that there were so many of the same type of stores. Several of each kind on many blocks. Two things I made note of while there last trip were not one but two high end bicycle shops and two high end camera stores.

Now, it should be said that the majority of these things are imported from Korea and China and while they may not be the name brands most westerners are familiar with, these cheaper alternatives are still very good and not at all cheap by Thai standards.  These brands are cheaper but then again the average rural Thai doesn’t have much money to spend as Martyn pointed out in his post.

There is also something else apparent throughout Thailand that many Westerners don’t catch onto quickly, repair shops. Where we used to have a repair shops for just about everything, as Westerners we have turned into a disposable society where the Thai’s haven’t. Perhaps they are lagging a little behind the times but I think they are just that much more frugal than us. What can’t be repaired becomes something else such as old tires being made into trash cans where we just fill up garbage dumps with them.

There is no doubt that Nakhon Phanom is in rural Thailand,  and as Martyn pointed out in his post the average rural Thai doesn’t make much more than 170-200 baht a day ( Province dependent ). So, as the discussion has worn on I keep coming back to Mukdahan and Nakhon Phanom. Mukdahan in contrast to Nakhon Phanom has very stark differences for towns no more than 15 minutes apart by car. And while I think we all agree that the average rural Thai makes very little in daily wages a rural city like Nakhon Phanom belies this fact. The question for me now becomes just how are rural Thai’s in Nakhon Phanom coming up with enough money to support so many varied higher end businesses?

The following are some pictures from my walk one day in Nakhon Phanom and are representative of the town. I didn’t post many multiples of any one business but wanted to give you an idea of whats on offer in a rural Thai city. The first picture is a necessity and might give a clue.

It may also be good to keep in mind that many bigger purchases can be paid for on time plans. Also don’t be fooled by what you see, while Nakhon Phanom is a larger city the majority of the province is farm land with many poor villages and most of the big shops are at the center of the city with the rest of the city being houses, apartments and Wats.

Either way you cut it there are variables at play in rural Thailand. Head over to Martyn’s post at Beyond the Mango Juice and join in on the discussion and if you live in Thailand see if you can take him up on his 170 baht challenge, it could be very interesting if a few people took him up on this. I don’t think I could do it but then again I couldn’t live on a middle class Thai’s salary for a month.

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Behind the family farm in Nakhon Phanom there is probably close to 50 individual rice paddies that are owned by all the various families in the village. I learned the hard way exactly how the rice fields work in the village because I spent a few days fertilizing them last April for the coming planting season. The family owned 7 fields behind their farm and a further 5 fields 3 miles down the road.

After a hard days work I was asked if I wanted to go fishing, to which I replied,  “sure”. I expected that once the fishing nets were checked and folded up that we would be loading up the truck and heading down the road to the Mekong, but I was wrong. We loaded up the truck and got all the kids on a motorcycle and started heading in the general direction of the Mekong but then we took a turn onto the dirt road that runs along side the rice fields.

The fields behind the farm are separated by a small wooded area with a stream and on the other side was another 40 fields or so. We came out of the wooded area and drove to the opposite side of the fields and parked. That’s when I noticed that interspersed around the fields were actually man made ponds that were pretty good sized and as I found out about 10 feet deep.

I asked Pookie if they had stocked the ponds and I was told they occasionally buy feeder fish and set them loose but the birds also help out by dropping remnants of fish and other critters into the water. As the nets came out and were prepared to start the fishing the kids found a spot in the shade to play while Pookie hid out behind a very small tree for cover while watching the men fish.

The ponds are collectively used by all of the farmers so I didn’t expect many fish to be pulled out but after a long day of shoveling manure I was more than ready to jump in and cool off. Eventually Pookie’s brothers and her young cousin unfurled the nets and set to trawling the first pond but as expected they didn’t get anything after 3 tries. We then headed for the second pond only to find that the fish weren’t home there either.

Right near the fields is what looks like a large natural lake and I was told we would walk over there and give that a try. I thought it sounded like a good idea until I walked into the lake only to find that the water only came up to my shins. At best it was 3 feet deep in places. more of a large flooded area than a lake. At this point I wondered what we would be fishing for.

It didn’t take me long to realize we would be mucking around in the mud for fresh water clams and mussels. They didn’t think I was up for it and laughed as I laid in the water, pulling myself around with my hands while feeling for anything in the muck below. Surprisingly, for me and them, I pulled up about 12 mussels and the brothers found about 20 each. More than enough to compliment dinner that night. And while we were mucking around in the mud Pookie decided to try her hand at photography, as you can see she caught my better side.

So, as the sun began to set, we loaded up the pickup truck and headed back to the house with our haul of mussels and just like their western counterparts there was a tall tale or two of the fish that got away. Dinner that night tasted better than any four star restaurant, partly because the work we put in to bring it to the table but mostly because I felt like I was a part of something bigger than a meal.

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When you think about farming and Thailand the logical conclusion usually ends up with visions of  rice, but when you drive through the provinces of Samut Sakhon & Samut Songkhran your logic just might be challenged. When I was heading to Damnoen Saduak floating market in April I settled in for what I knew was going to be a long ride full of bland scenery, about 50 kilometers South West of Bangkok along Rama II Road something made me sit up and take notice.

On both sides of the road for as far as the eye could see were flooded fields.  I knew it was too early for rice planting and some of the fields looked almost white under the water while others had men who seemed to be raking white mounds into perfect lines throughout the field.  I tries to coax the answer out of my driver but he couldn’t explain in English so I was left with my own ideas until I got back to the hotel later that day.

When I showed my find to Pookie and asked what was going on without blinking she picked up a salt shaker from the table and poured some salt into my hand. Something so simple yet my mind couldn’t figure it out.

After looking at the pictures for a while and doing a little research I realized I had hit the mother load of Thai ingenuity. Not only are the Thai’s using one natural resource to manufacture another,  they are doing it in an absolute green way.

These fields are actually large shallow flat pools that have the earth tamped down tight to hold the water that is pumped into them from the Gulf of Siam or the Mae Khlong River, both of which have a  high salt content. The water is pumped into the pools by means of a wooden paddled conveyor belt driven by small windmills scattered throughout the fields. Once the water is pumped into the shallow pools then it’s a two month wait while the sun does it’s work removing the salt from the water.

At the end of two months the pools are drained of the majority of their water and the residual salt that came to rest on the bottom of the pools is then raked up into piles to be collected. The collected salt is then stored in small warehouses located at the edges of the fields where it is then packaged for sale.

Every couple of miles along the road are small stands selling the sea salt in bags as small as one kilo all the way up to 50 kilo sacks. The salt farms operate for six months of the year starting at the end of rainy season in November and continuing until the end of April just before the rains return.

Most crops need water but this is one crop that relies on the sun and I can only guess that early rains would be bad for business.

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Wat Phra Kaew,  also known as the temple of the Emerald Buddha,  resides within the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok and is considered the most revered Buddhist shine in all of Thailand. The Emerald Buddha itself is actually carved of jadeite, stands 26 inches tall and sits atop a large gold alter in the center of the temple.

Only the King of Thailand is allowed close to the Emerald Buddha when the seasonal gold costume it wears is changed three times a year. The summer costume consists of a crown and jewelry, the winter costume is a golden shawl and the costume worn during Buddhist Lent is a gilt robe and headdress. The costume change is an important Thai ritual performed by the King who will also sprinkles water over the gathered monks and the faithful to bring good luck during the upcoming season. The other two costumes are on display in the nearby Pavillion of Regalia, Royal Decorations and Thai Coins while not in use.

According to popular belief the Emerald Buddha started it’s journey in Sri Lanka but modern historians have discounted most of the Buddha statues early history and are confident that the Buddha image was carved sometime during the late 14th century to the mid 15th century in Northern Thailand. Although,  the statue is carved in the style and attitude of  Buddha images found in Southern India or Sri Lanka with the Buddha in a meditation pose. The meditation pose has never been prominent in Thailand which may have lead early historians to assign an alternate history to the Emerald Buddha.

The history from this era says that the Buddha was once hidden in a Chedi  in the Chiang Rai province, but a lightening storm in 1434 damaged that Chedi exposing a stucco likeness of the Buddha. Upon closer inspection the stucco was falling off exposing the Jadeite Buddha below. Being such a beautiful dark green it was confused as being made of emerald at first, giving the statue it’s name The Emerald Buddha.

The King of Chiang Mai at the time heard of this wonderful discovery and decided that the statue must reside within his province. Three times he sent an elephant to Chiang Rai to retrieve the Buddha and three times the elephant stopped at a crossroads while returning with the Buddha. This was seen as a sign from Buddha himself and a temple was constructed in Lampang where the Emerald Buddha stayed for 32 years.

The next king of Chiang Mai decided the Emerald Buddha should be housed in his province as well and this time the Emerald Buddha was successfully moved from Lampang to Chiang Mai where it resided in a temple until 1552 when invaders from Laos stole the emerald Buddha. The statue remained in Laos for the next 214 years until General Chakri, who would later become King Rama I, brought the statue back to the capital at Thonburi after a successful war with Laos.

In 1784 When King Rama I moved the capital across the river to Bangkok he had the ordinance hall built where the stature still resides to this day. The ordinance hall was a plain stucco structure when it was first constructed but King Rama III would change all of that.

Large stucco moldings were installed and the whole hall was gilded and adorned with glass mosaics.  A pair of Khmer lions, believed to be from the Khmer Bayon period of the 13th century, guard each of the six entrances. At the base of the ordination hall is a row of golden Garuda’s each holding a Naga in each hand. The Garuda is the King of all birds and the mount of Vishnu the great Hindu god, the Naga is the king of all serpents and the enemy of Garuda. The Garuda holding the Naga is believed to be a very powerful image to chase away evil spirits.

The ordination hall also contains two other interesting Buddha statues. Both ten foot tall statues are cast in bronze and stand crowned at either side of the Emerald Buddha. These statues were commissioned by King Rama III in dedication to King Rama I and King Rama II.

The Temple of the Emerald Buddha is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Thailand,  and rightly so. The attention to detail inside as well as outside the ordination hall is stunning. The compound surrounding the ordination hall is equally as stunning with the various monuments and buildings glinting in the midday sun.

Getting a picture of the famous Emerald Buddha is sometimes easier said than done though. No pictures are allowed inside the ordinance hall which leaves you only two vantage points to get your photo. The first is through the open doorway at the front of the hall and the second is through a small open window cut into the front wall of the hall.

Wat Phra Kaew is absolutely a must see while in Bangkok and it is sure to give you memories that will last a lifetime.

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While working on the family farm in Nakhon Phanom this past April I put in more than my fair share of sweat equity getting the fields ready for the upcoming rice season. Most of the family fields are located just behind the house so we didn’t have far to go with our tractor loads of dung we had mucked from the stables.

One thing kept bothering me though, a tree right in the middle of the family fields. You don’t see many large trees still standing in the rice fields but now and again you’ll see one lone tree defying the odds. At first I thought I had it all figured out, with the sun as strong as it was and me sweating my ass off and looking for any patch of shade I could find that could be the only answer. Then I realized that couldn’t be the answer. There were small huts and thatch roofed decks spotted around the fields for just that purpose.

My last day on the farm was all about relaxing and hanging out with the family and I spent a good part of that day sitting under that tree enjoying it’s shade. Pookie and her Aunt joined me, although they didn’t seem to understand the relaxing part because they were digging in the dirt around the tree. Next think I know they are pulling up what could only be described as hard black balls and throwing them into a straw hat. I swear to Buddha I thought they were collecting some sort of dung.

Before I knew it I was digging around in the dirt and finding similar hard black balls and wondering just what the hell I was up to. Before long we had a hat full and were heading back to the house to relax in the shade there and eye up our curious find. Pookie disappeared into the house only to appear a few minutes later with a very wicked looking knife and a very determined look on he face.

After I realized she wasn’t coming for me but the hard black balls I settled down and watched as she started to split them in half with her wicked knife and feed me the treasure buried inside. As soon as I saw the first ball split open all my questions were answered. They were almonds and that big ass tree was an almond tree. I had missed the blooming of the tree earlier in the year and the harvest of it’s nuts. The nuts fall off the tree at will sometimes and bury themselves in the dirt. So now and again a treat can be had on a hot spring day.

I had never seen an almond in it’s shell before and the only almond trees I have ever seen were very small and ornate looking. The nut grows as the tree blooms and looks very similar to a small green peach. When the peach like shell hardens and turns a deep brown or black the almonds are ready to harvest.

I have to say relaxing under the tree was nice but relaxing under the house while being hand fed the fruits of that tree was priceless. And some of us relaxed more than others.

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