At the age of 15, Saengjun Limlohakul (1924-1997) bought his first camera, a second-hand Kodak Brownie for 2.50 baht. It was around 1940 and a roll of film cost 80 satang. It was a time when owning a camera was a privilege and photography wasn't something everyone did.
The old town of Phuket, then and now.
Saengjun never stopped clicking, taking photographs of his surroundings, the lives around him: specifically, Phuket at its turning point, as the island was transforming itself from a tin-mining city into a major tourist destination.
"He photographed like a mad man as if he were producing his own films,'' says Manit Sriwanichpoom, photographer and owner of Kathmandu Photo Gallery, who has discovered Saengjun's vast collection of photographs and negatives in the care of his apprentice Somchai Bamrungwong.
For the seventh show in the "Seeking Forgotten Thai Photographers'' series at Kathmandu Photo Gallery, Manit curates a retrospective of Saengjun's previously unexhibited works, which present themselves as historical artifacts, visual accounts of lives lived. The photographs, printed from old negatives with traces of scratches and dust left untouched, reveal Phuket as very much forgotten today.
"I picked out photos that demonstrate his strong point as a photographer. He's great at taking portraits like those of beauty queens and strippers. He placed a white backdrop behind the models for contrast. He would crop out the rest of the picture outside of the white background but I chose to display the complete pictures. I believe he only wanted to show models in front of a plain background, but I want to show the atmosphere where the photographs were taken cluttered spaces with old fans, broken chairs, and sign boards. He adapted his techniques to fit the surroundings,'' Manit says.
One side of Kathmandu's wall is dedicated to girls of the nightclubs, capturing the emergence of strip clubs during the Vietnam War; the other side featuring scenes of Phuket.
"He must have had a good relationship with the female performers. It seems like he had a special skill or personality to make these women relax in front of the camera. As far as I know, he was very handsome," Manit explains.
According to Saengjun's apprentice, he refused to work at a desk in an office. He loved to travel, and his camera was like an additional organ.
"I saw him taking photographs all the time when I was young,'' says Somchai, who met Saengjun while Saengjun was practicing tai chi in the park, almost 20 years ago. The young Somchai introduced himself and asked to look at his old photographs.
"To make a living, he would go anywhere with people, and photograph them, develop the photos at night and deliver them to the people the next day. He also started giving tours around Phuket,'' Somchai says. Saengjun worked several odd jobs, as a mechanic, a teacher, at a bicycle repair shop, and a taxi driver.
By the time they met, Saengjun was approaching the end of his life and wanted to pass on his photography skills his blood relatives had chosen other paths. He was ill and had stopped developing photographs. Saengjun offered to teach Somchai all the technical skills, in his makeshift darkroom converted from a bathroom. He offered Somchai all his equipment.
"I asked him if I could buy his negatives. I had only wanted them for practice and I would show them off to my friends," Somchai recalls.
"He was good-natured and knew everyone in every social sphere,'' says Somchai. The wealth of photographs unveils the wide cultural dimensions, the culture of photography when it still lends an air of excitement, when people would dress in fancy clothes, impersonating famous singers and actors and go to photo shops with their friends, when even monks would dress in regular clothes to get a photograph taken. We [Thai people] never cared about personal history. Often when I'm doing research, I find the negatives destroyed. The climate in Thailand is not good for preservation. Thai people also don't value their own history, their own stories. Regular people held no place in history we learned about the royal family and politicians. They are the important history. Not us, not our regular lives,'' Manit observes.
There is no current photography archive in Thailand, only a film archive. Manit, who also teaches photography, finds himself referring to Western photographers during his lessons although photography had been introduced in Thailand very early on and was endorsed by successive kings.
The collection of photographs by Saengjun offers not just a look into the past of a city, now honoured with postcards of beaches and blue skies, but also draws interest into the photographer's life, how he lived, how he saw the world. It is a relic.
''Seeking Forgotten Thai Photographers" is on until Feb 23 at Kathmandu Photo Gallery 87 Pan Road, Silom, Bangkok.
Call 02-234-6700.
Self-Portrait of Saengjun Limlohakul.
