Bangkok Photoshoot
This past April, I took a trip to Thailand. This was my first time visiting Asia, and I was excited to explore. Since getting into medium format film photography last year, I knew I wanted to shoot mainly film on this trip. However, my Mamiya 645 is too heavy to carry around all day, traveling, and thus my extensive research into travel-size medium format cameras was born. I eventually settled on a Fuji Film GA 645, which has a built-in zoom, auto focus, and I found it for sale on Facebook Marketplace in my price range!
I bought some Cinestill 800 film and was itching to try it out on a night-time shoot. I also had a roll of Kodak Gold 200 that I pushed two stops, which was a fun experiment! (Cinestill was shot in Chinatown). Through the Bangkok film photography community (which, if you’re ever in Bangkok, I highly suggest visiting this shop!), I connected with Pat, an amazing model who agreed to meet me at Hua Lamphong Station one evening.
I arrived at the station an hour early to figure out where I wanted to shoot. After 45 minutes of wandering around the mostly deserted station, I called my husband, Michael, and told him I didn't think I could do this shoot. That I should cancel and go find a block of ice. I was sweating more than I'd ever sweated in my life, and to top it off, I'd just started my period, and that mixed with the heat was making me delirious.
But Michael made me laugh. And then Pat showed up, and soon my exhaustion was replaced with excitement.
The deserted rail lines of Hua Lamphong Station gave us the freedom to wander onto empty train tracks, explore hidden stairwells, and hop onto parked train cars. I couldn’t believe the freedom we had walking around the station. If I were at home, security would have kicked us out, OR some unsavory fellow would say something like “You're so beautiful,” and then never walk away. To top the night off, we wandered down to Chinatown, where Pat told me stories of her life as a model in Bangkok and Milan.
These two locations were in stark contrast to one another. The busy streets of Chinatown offered bustling alleys and bold color, while the quiet station gave us space to create without interruption. It was a photographer's dream—the kind of night that reminds you why you pick up a camera in the first place, even when everything in your body is telling you to go home and sit in front of a fan.
