Bangkok Post: The world windows to Thailand

Longtime Bangkok resident and advertising executive Garry Cooper recently held a successful auction of his photographs for the Bangkok Post Foundation, raising a total of 360,000 baht from the auction of four photos alone.

Winners of the auction Lertchai Phongsobhon, second left, and Michel Horn, right, with, from left, On-Usa Lamliengpol, CEO of Leo Burnett and ARC Worldwide; Garry Cooper; Kusuma Mintakhin; and Supakorn Vejjajiva, president and COO of the Post Publishing and committee member of Bangkok Post Foundation.

The charity auction was part of a week-long exhibition, featuring 48 monochrome and colour photographs taken by Cooper, highlighting several locations he visited around the world.

The exhibition, "It's Time to Give Back", was jointly organised by Leo Burnett and ARC Worldwide together with the Bangkok Post.

After having had a successful career in Thailand as a creative director, Cooper felt it was time to give something back to the country he had grown to love.

All proceeds from the "It's Time to Give Back" photo exhibition and auction will be donated to the Bangkok Post Foundation to sponsor education support for poor Thai children.

"Photography is my favourite activity," Cooper said in his introduction. "I love how a photo can perfectly capture our memory, communicate emotions and reflect well on people's life and cultures. As I travelled to places around the world, I've taken lots of meaningful photos everywhere I went. I've been touched by all the different cultures I've seen from one place to the next. But through all the differences, one similar thing I realised from each place is the innocence of the young kids. I can see hope reflected in their eyes. I've discovered through my journey that there are still a large number of children who have no chance to study and just need someone to hand them an opportunity. Children's hope reflected through their sparkling eyes has inspired me to do something for their better future. I believe giving opportunities on education is one of the best ways to give back to Thai society, since education can help develop these children to grow up beautifully. Their fully educated minds will become a key to promote the bright future of Thailand."

Nadia Nimitvanich, Mr On-Usa, Mr Supakorn, Mr Cooper, Kriengsak Tantipipop, Chalida Taochalee Tantipipop and Bhanu Ingkawat.

Joining the event were two scholarship recipients of the Bangkok Post Foundation who have now completed their studies and have secure jobs as a result. They told the audience how the scholarships helped them through their hardships and gave them a new direction in life.

Four photos of children were chosen by Cooper to be auctioned for charity. The highest bidders for each auction photo were Sanan Angubolkul, president of Srithai Superware PCL (200,000 baht); Lertchai Phongsobhon, sales and business development director of Toll Global Forwarding (Thailand) (30,000 baht); Michel Horn, general manager of Centara Grand at CentralWorld (30,000 baht); and Atsushi Fujimoto, president of Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co, Ltd (100,000 baht).

Also, there were 20-inch photos and beautiful sets of postcards available for visitors to buy.

All proceeds were given to underprivileged children for scholarships via the Bangkok Post Foundation.

The auction gets under way.

A total of 650,000 baht was raised from the whole exhibition for the Bangkok Post Foundation for the education of underprivileged children.