How would it be with….

Lately I have been reminded of the Thai I happened upon during one of my many photo expeditions through the capital of Thailand. What has become of them after the terrible flood of the past few months…?

A while ago I was working in Bangkok -I'm a photographer- and was looking for suitable locations to shoot for a series I'm working on. Under the Expressway at Khlong Toey I found a great photogenic part of Bangkok. A place where not many tourists come, no entertainment area. It was the middle of the day, no glitz and glamour, no eatery or temple in sight.

At a bridge that spanned the khlong I found a group of Thai eating on a lawn. They looked at me as surprised as I at them. She did not understand what I came to do there, clearly recognizable as a farang. Not hostile but curious and before I knew it there were children looking over my shoulder to see what I was photographing.

I wanted to photograph the underside of the viaducts, a continuation of a series of viaducts I had photographed in the Netherlands. Imposing concrete structures in an empty environment, abstract geometric shapes.

Where the road normally runs in the Netherlands, here was the canal. Just as dark in color. I was spinning and was not completely satisfied with the image. At one point, as good and evil as possible, the group of people asked if I could come closer. To be able to make a better composition with them in the image. What followed was an interesting conversation where I didn't understand their Thai and they didn't speak English.

What did become clear was that they were not just eating there, but that she lived there 'semi' permanently. At my request to point out where they lived, they pointed out two plateaus at the foot of the huge pillars that supported the Expressway. On a very narrow strip were some things, a mat, a cloth, a clothesline with a T-shirt, a bottle with water and a Buddha statue. An entire household.

I wanted to take some pictures there and was looking at their 'view' on the water. Suddenly I saw bubbles on the water and thought 'gosh how strange that it's just about to rain'. But the bubbles weren't caused by raindrops. It was gas rising from the bottom of the channel. It made me dizzy and nauseous.

Confused and impressed I got up, I had taken beautiful pictures exactly what I was looking for and at the same time I was confronted with living conditions that I didn't know what to do with. They didn't seem upset by their place in Bangkok, neither ashamed nor proud. It held up a mirror to me. Something to think about what I was actually doing there, what I was capturing. Their meager possessions and beautiful geometric shapes.

These weeks I often think about them how would they be now that their bulge is probably a meter or more under water, what little they had would be gone?

Text and photos by Francois Eyck