Bangkok Post : Portrait of a University

Truth comes from observation and truth about Thailand, away from the temples, towers and tourists, can be found through the lens of a young US photographer currently studying at the country's largest school, Ramkhamhaeng University (Ram), in a photo exhibition now on view at Kathmandu Gallery.

In "Ram", Luke Cassady-Dorion develops a plot in a photo journal format as he explores Ram, a university he has been a student at for the last three years, focusing on its peculiar character with parallels to a portraitist rendering a person.

Luke furnishes an individualisation of an institution that represents 100,000 students without idealising it. Rather, he is searching objectively for the personality of the place without the institutional propaganda.

One of the most interesting aspects of the work is that some of the images are mundanely composed which would usually preclude each, taken on its own, from being considered in any way art. Indeed, while several capture interesting angles and subjects, a few are so ordinary they appear to have been taken by a graduating student or a member of a student's family during graduation.

Luke's aim, however, is not to produce masterpieces: he finds rather than creates.

This apparent weakness has been transformed here into a power. The totality of the works combine together - that is the photographer and his camera symbiotically merge into the subject - much as Ramkhamhaeng University binds itself with its multitude of diverse students, creating something unique not only to Thailand, but the entire world.

This portrait, while not being of one individual, nevertheless speaks volumes of the men and women from all walks of life that challenge themselves to sit in the empty classrooms Luke documents. And like any good portraiture it reveals the character of the subject, an institution as open to the Everyman as is the camera itself, a device that requires no special artistic training to liberate and communicate.

The most exceptional of the 18 images on display in Ram are those of empty classrooms, particularly the 60x60-inch print (dimensions nine times larger than the 16 other 20x20-inch prints), in which it is possible to become immersed in the immensity of the subject.

Luke plays with perception by selecting a particular aspect which best captures the diagrammatical layout of the cavernous spaces, highlighting transverse and orthogonal lines, resulting in triangular and pyramidal symmetries to the point of convergence, creating chequerboard and other visual effects.

The central purpose of these photographs is to collectively convey insight into character and, in so doing, they remain as accessible as a family photo album. Luke's realism finds truth in detail, through truthful settings under typical circumstances.

This approach to photography frees the medium from the confines of conventions and yet remains far from elitist, a further reflection of the parallel between the observer and the observed evident in this egalitarian exhibition.

"The longer that I studied at Ram, the more I came to see beauty in its rooms and auditoriums and wanted to make sure that other people understood the importance of the institution. Ram offers a democratic approach to education which cuts across socio-economic, cultural, religious and national barriers," said Luke.

"This exhibition comes at an interesting time for the university as many new buildings are finishing construction which means many of the older buildings will eventually be torn down. While the older buildings are lacking many conveniences, they show Ram sucking every last drop of use out of a building as part of their mission to put opportunity first."

Luke Cassady-Dorion extends himself and his subject by submersion into the commonplace - the situation Ramkhamhaeng students and the vast majority of the world's population find themselves living every day - and returns with the extraordinariness inherent within the experience of life.

At its core, Ram traces the pattern of humanity as it floats fleetingly through the enormity of existence in its search for meaning. It celebrates the sublimeness of human nature experienced as a matter of routine, everyday life.