ellipsis…

Bobbie, one of my teammates on my Thailand trip, just posted a report that the CBC News did on NightLight. they interview Loy, one of the women at NightLight; Sandra, the lady who organized my trip; and Jeff, the founders husband. it’s a short report, but you definitely get the idea of what NightLight is trying to accomplish.

i’m back from a whirlwind trip to Thailand. visited an orphanage, rode a elephant, and got soaked by the extended Songkran festival while river rafting, all in Chiang Mai. got down to work photographing NightLight staff while they worked on some amazing jewelry. met up with Chris who works with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) who took me around Nana Plaza and told me all of the ins and outs of photographing in a red light district. Chris also heads the MST Project that works with the men who buy sex workers. MST Project’s mission statement is “Men are not part of the problem but rather part of the solution.” pretty powerful stuff. he says that a lot of his work is to change people’s perspective of the men who buy sex. and on my last day, i photographed a handful of signature pieces and some of the new lineup of jewelry on the streets of Bangkok.

i didn’t bring any of my digital gear so i borrowed Katie’s equipment, an Olympus E-520 with the kit 14-42 and 40-150 lens. to be honest, it’s amazing what you can do with just a basic consumer kit. Katie is NightLight’s jewelry designer. she’s got an awesome vision for where she wants to take the jewelry, and is coming out with some fantastic stuff. Katie, Gift (her design intern), and I headed out onto the streets of Bangkok on one of the hottest days i’ve experienced, 40 plus degrees celsius and probably 90% humidity. add in all of the pollution and you’ve got a sweltering day for a photo shoot.

the idea was to place the jewelry in, on, around the busy streets of Bangkok. using the urban landscape to create interesting backgrounds for the jewelry. i grabbed a couple of sheets of white paper to use as reflectors but the sun was already so high in the sky at 10am i didn’t really use them. plus white doesn’t reflect enough to really counter act the sun. it was funny how many people stopped and watched as i crouched on the ground taking pictures. when i was in China and Japan i remember seeing photo shoots everywhere i went. no so much in Thailand, it was like i was a new street performer. half way through Katie asked me if i was going to take a shower after, i totally didn’t notice how dirty i was getting from shooting everything from such a low angle.

i think the images turned out pretty good. i’m hoping NightLight can put them to good use. you can find NightLight’s jewelry here. they have a brand new website launching soon, so don’t mind the design for now.

I came to Thailand looking to photograph the raw sex that this country has unfortunitely become known for. What I have found instead is a thriving hope that NightLight Design Co. is giving sex workers. Even flying over the pacific I had no idea what to expect from NightLight. Actually when my dad met me in Vancover he had heard that I would probably not be able to photograph the women at NightLight at all.

NightLight has blown me away. Initially I thought NightLight was an NGO. It turns out that it’s actually NightLight Design Company a full fledge jewelry design company who hires sex workers as an alternate job. Through the company they provide education, healthcare and counselling to their employees. What an ingenious way of providing a way out of the sex industry. The jewelry is high end stuff too. (I’m writing this on my phone so I can’t add a link, but I’ll post information on all of that when I get back.) They are just starting to scale back their designs, which sit at just over 200, so they can start to design for the mainstream fashion seasons. Currently they have a an exclusive line designed for a highend client in the UK, and eventually wanting to expand to stores like Neman Marcus in the US. Annie, the president, has an amazing vision for the company and a huge heart for these women. I sat in with my dad this afternoon as he got the chance to interview two of NightLight’s women. Just amazing life stories. I was able to pop off a couple of frames. I guess the annoying part of shooting film is the waiting, I would have loved to post them right away.

A couple of nights ago I ventured out to the three major red light districts in Bangkok; Pat Pong, Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy. Usually I’m not shy about taking pictures in public places, but I definitely had my guard up. Nana Plaza especially, a three story outside plaza with only one way in and one way out. Scared the shit out if me to be honest. I’m not quite sure how I am going to pull off shooting in such a “client” aware area without being noticed. And really, forget about getting into the nitty gritty part of the sex culture without having some sort of exclusive inside edge. I really wish I could. I think it would make for amazing images. A “day in the life” would be such an eye opening and brutal story, and yet I think the images would be amazingly powerful.

I am hoping to be working with NightLight in the future. They are currently working on new branding and marketing. It would be awesome in the future to bring a small team to Thailand to photograph new collections, maybe even use some I the NightLight women as models keeping everything local.

That’s all for now. Here are a couple of iPhone snaps.

[update]
A correction really. NightLight is a Christian NGO, NightLight Design Company is not. There is a notforprofit side but it’s completely separate from the jewelry design company. The women’s salaries are soley paid by the design business. So inorder to support the women jewelery must be sold since none of the NGO donations can be transferred. Annie was telling us that a lot of people expect NightLight’s jewelry to be cheaper because part of the overall organization is a NGO. But to her business is business. You have to make money to pay your staff a fair and good wage, buy quality supplies, and have proper marketing and distribution. Makes sense to me.

I’ve got 2 hours to kill at YVR so I thought I’d write my first post of the trip. Over the last couple of days Bangkok has been over run with red shirted demonstraters who want the exiled prime minister back in power. Before the weekend they had taken over and stopped the Asia leaders conference that was suppose to happen. And at the moment the Thai military has been mobilized to breakup the rallies which has inturn sparked some violence. So all-in-all things are a bit touch and go in Bangkok. To be honest it makes me more excited to go.

I’m packing pretty light camera wise this trip. My trusty Konica Hexar that has travelled the world with me, an Olympus OM-2sp with an 85mm (which is almost smaller than my Hexar), 12 rolls of Fuji 800z, a ND4 & a ND8 filter for the day, and my Fuji F40. I’m hoping the ND filters will be dark enough for some portrait work with 800 speed film.

I picked up a map of Bangkok the other day to start to pinpoint the districts I want to go to. Googling Bangkok sex tourism is a creepy thing. I managed to find an article by a Chicago Post writer who was in Bangkok and he wrote about the different red light districts. It’s going to be an interesting trip working with NightLight and the women they help, as well as having the political unrest. I’m trying to keep my expectations low, but I’m super excited to see what images I can capture about the sex trade in Bangkok, the women and boys & girls who work I it, and the people who help them find alternative work.

I guess I haven’t really written about why I’m going to Thailand. I am traveling to Thailand with a my dad and a team of 6 others from a church in Red Deer. We are going to Thailand to work with an organization called NightLight who works with women and children in the sex trade, providing alternative work, shelter, counselling, and support. I am going to document NightLight and their work, as well as the try to capture the realness of the sex trade itself. It’s a bit of a daunting task, but I’m excited to see what results of it. Keep tuned in here and Twitter, I am going to try to keep things updated as much as possible. Now I think I’m going to find some lunch

lately i’ve been caught up in breaking into the commercial side of things. working on my “elevator” speech, putting out my first email promo, working on the follow up mailer and trying to get connected in the fashion world. things that, by all intents and purposes, should find me the business that i want. now a days most photographers can’t be general. most consultants will tell you that you need to target a specific clientele, a niche market. for me that niche market would be fashion. but here is the dilemma that i have been struggling with; how do you actually define what fashion photography is? you can look at W magazine or Vogue and see all of the crazy couture and the amazing glossy pages full of images from Demarchelier or Testino or Inez & Vinoodh, and say that’s fashion photography. but then you can also look at a guy like Terry Richardson who has a very candid/voyeuristic style, he’s known as a top fashion photog as well. and then you have Anne Leibovitz who doesn’t really consider herself a fashion photographer but more of a portrait photographer.

maybe i’ve got my thinking all wrong. maybe it’s not to be that specific. fashion is broken down into two things; first the clothing, second the person. the clothing is first and foremost but the model wearing it isn’t that far behind. they set the mood, they are the ambiance for the clothing. maybe it isn’t really the fashion that i’m drawn to in my photography, but more of the ambiance that the person creates in the clothing. which then makes me think that it’s the person in any situation that creates the mood/feeling that i like to photograph.

this journey into the business side of photography has made me start of desifer my myself and my photography. it has made me really think hard about what i do. sometimes second guessing what i’m doing. Irving Penn said,

“A fashion picture is a portrait, just as a portrait is a fashion picture.”

it’s not a new quote to me. i’ve seen it numerous times before, it headline A Visual Society’s blog. but it hasn’t really meant a whole lot till now. i’ve been so focused on making sure i stay in a niche market and work towards a target audience that i think i have painted myself into a corner. i photograph people. i photograph them in a style that is starting to take root in what i do. it lends itself to not just fashion, but weddings and lifestyle and portraiture and travel. it’s been month since i’ve started writing my elevator speech, i still haven’t finished it. i always get stuck on categorizing myself as a fashion photographer. i need to start thinking of myself as a portrait photographer. one who takes pictures of people, in fashion or life or anything else for that matter.