Irreverent, informed and downright eclectic books and reportage from Southeast Asia and beyond
“In the morning, when I wake up, I drink a coffee and I read the paper. What is today’s bullshit, today’s lie? I never believe anything that’s written in the papers, they’re like cartoons. They’re entertainment. They don’t tell the truth.”
Former massage parlour kingpin Chuwit Kamolvisit says Thailand’s political establishment remains as hypocritical and divided [...]
The conflict between the Thai government and the Red Shirts - the former backed by a lose interest group that includes the military, royalists, part of the capital’s business community and right-wing fringe elements, commonly known as the Yellow Shirts, the latter a growing and motley collection of often paid supporters of fugitive former Prime [...]
One of my images of a Red Shirt demonstration in early April, a few days prior to the first serious riots in the nine week show-down between protesters and the Thai government, ran in The Daily Telegraph’s education pages in the UK in early June.
At the time, I think it was April 4th, the mood [...]
The Times (UK) published a two page image spread of mine on May 20th. I took the image of a woman in front of the Red Shirt stage in Bangkok’s Rajaprasong area minutes after the capitulation of the red Shirt leaders following the movement’s two month demonstration in the Thai capital.
As the Red Shirt leaders [...]
A few of my images of the conflict between Red Shirt protesters and the military can be viewed at the website of Onasia Images, along with many other photographs from the conflict by Onasia photographers.
The night is not far away and likely to bring out an army of looters and black guards who have promised to set the city on fire. The battle is over but the war is only just starting. Bangkok, my city, is burning.
This morning started with the military moving into the Red Zone with massive [...]
Last night, I crossed the city twice in a taxi, for the most part on the elevated express way. There was barely any traffic and some exits were blocked by armed soldiers. Police on motorbikes patrolled the empty four lane highways sporadically. Downtown Bangkok, usually a garishly colorful Bladerunner skyline of high-rises pasted with billboards [...]
My friend’s wife Puk just gave birth to her second child, a son. His name is Duncan. Duncan was born in Vajira Hospital, the same clinic major general ‘Sae Daeng’ Khattiya, one of the most divisive figures in Thailand’s political crisis, now lies in, after being shot in the head by a sniper two days [...]
It´s not easy to write about war. Harder still to write about war at home. Bangkok is my home and tonight, parts of the city were on the verge of giving way to total chaos. After eight weeks of street protests by the so-called Red Shirts aiming to force the Thai government to resign and [...]
That’s what a policeman asked me and a friend, as we were photographing the medieval-looking barricades, constructed of sandbags, sharpened bamboo poles, barbed wire and car tires, which one has to pass to get into the Ratchaprasong area, Bangkok’s up-scale and shut down shopping district.
It’s like stepping into another country, another world. Downtown Bangkok, according [...]