Poetic Bangkok

There’s a new book about our beloved’n'behated Bangkok: “Bangkok”. A hymn to the quiet poetry of our misunderstood megalopolis.

It’s an illustrated book more precisely. With photographs shot by Peter Nitsch, 34, a richly awarded German photographer living between Bangkok and Munich.

You’ll say that Bangkok is never poetic and that there are already whole libraries filled with books about Bangkok.

Nitsch’s Bangkok is different.

A quiet, never rushed approach to a city that remains as complicated as inscrutable.

The book is not a spectacular photographic hymn to bar girls, temples and other worn out clichés. But a hymn dedicated to unobtrusive side views, snapshots, fading moments in time.

You have never heard of Nitsch. He’s more known among private collectors, such as Prince Charles, as Nitsch tells absolutely Bangkok.com.

His book Bangkok he shot with a Hasselblad XPan and the Hasselblad 503CW with the 50mm and 100mm lenses.

That’s right.

With a good old film camera.

Says Nitsch: “With this special book the most important decision was to use film, and not digital photography. I feel that the process of photography is more intensive with film. You take yourself more time and try harder to capture the optimal image. All photos in the book are real, unaltered, not manipulated. It is my feeling as not the technique of the photographer is important, but one’s own perception.”

Nitsch knows Bangkok inside out. Roamed through streets and places you’ll never venture to. But why Bangkok?!

Nitsch: “I wanted to show with this book that Bangkok may be a multi-megalopolis, but not the Moloch it seems to be at first glance. Bangkok stands for the new Far East: It’s democratic, ultra-modern and still very conscious of its traditions. From afar Bangkok may look like a Moloch. From up close it’s a collection of poetic details. Jochen Müssig, who edited the book, quotes a telling Thai saying in the foreword: “The eyes are the window of the heart.”"

Nitsch portrays the “economic metropolis and city of 400 temples,” writes publisher rupa, that “can be both fascinating and sometimes nauseating at the same time. “The illustrated book displays the “Venice of the East” without over-romanticising the city. Authentic, surprising and bursting with emotion.”

Nitsch thinks of the book as a “little Bangkok journey.. A portrait of its fascinating people and peculiarities, of the soup kitchen, meditative traditions, the pristineness of klongs and views of the metropolis.

Some shots Nitsch got by chance, others he had to plan most patiently. “The book should portray Bangkok in its contradictory beauty,” says Nitsch. “Many only know the hectic Bangkok. But there’s the quiet, charming Bangkok.”

Some images Nitsch prefers as panoramas, others as squares. Some in full color, others black-and-white.

Embracing the whole spectrum of a photographer’s tool box – trying to conceive the inconceivability called Bangkok.

Find out how to order “Bangkok” by Peter Nitsch




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February 15, 2008 | Filed Under Books & Movies, Culture & Arts, Travel & Tourism, Truly Bangkok 

Comments

5 Responses to “Poetic Bangkok”

  1. Nam Gluey on February 16th, 2008 2.57 am

    I absolutely agree that a lot of people can´t see the real beauty of Bangkok. I think I will have a look at the book. Niiiiicccceeee.

  2. Pimporn on February 16th, 2008 4.34 pm

    I have never seen my own city Bangkok this way. Thank you.

  3. Peter Nitsch on February 17th, 2008 9.59 pm

    Thank you for the well written feature of my book :)

    Peter

  4. Bill on February 21st, 2008 12.21 am

    I have been to Bangkok over 3 times in the past year and did not think much of it. I think this book might be a way to see things you normally would not see.

  5. fouse, gary c on March 17th, 2008 2.14 am

    The “Deer Hunter” filmed in Bangkok

    During my tour of duty in Bangkok with DEA (1975-78), I had occasion to travel back home to LA. This would have been in ‘76 or ‘77, I don’t recall.
    While I was home, my cousin came to visit. She was a film producer and brought a female friend who also worked in the film industry. The lady asked a favor when I returned to Bangkok in the next few days. She explained that her company was producing a film to be called, “The Deer Hunter”. Part of the film was to be filmed in Bangkok. She asked me to carry the script with me to Bangkok and that an associate would pick it up later in Thailand. I agreed, and a few days later, was on my way back to Thailand via Europe, script in hand.

    I read the script on my way home with stops in Amsterdam and Rome. As I recall, a few weeks later, someone came to our apartment and picked up the script.

    Later, I was contacted by someone from the film crew, and we met for lunch at the Oriental Hotel. I took along our Thai investigative asst, as the producers wanted advice on how to arrange for Thai cops to assist them in setting up crowd control, blocking off sites, etc for filming. As I recall, we put them in touch with some Thai cops.

    When the filming actually began, probably in ‘77, the Vietnam segment was filmed in Thailand, and Bangkok was used to portray Saigon. Numerous Americans and Europeans living in Bangkok were recruited to portray American servicemen and bit parts. The “doctor” in the Vietnam hospital scene (who tried to interview Christopher Walkin) was one of our intelligence analysts who happened to be an amateur actor.

    One night, I went down to Patpong looking for a European informant I was working with who was being used as an extra. That night they were filming a bar scene, using one of the bars and some of the girls as extras. While I was standing there, an American lady who was working on the set approached me and asked if I was American. She then asked me if I would be willing to be an extra in the bar scene. They would pay me $20.00. I said OK, and she told me to stand by. A few minutes later, she came back and took me across the street to wait in front of the bar, as Thai on-lookers furiously snapped photos, thinking I must be one of the stars.

    After standing in front of the bar (which, if I remember correctly was the Mississippi something or other, she came back and told me I was not needed after all. I left without finding my informant.

    A day or two later, I was informed by the Thai police that our informant had been shot to death on Sukhumvit Road in an apparent botched robbery attempt, in which he tried to fight back. To this day, I still don’t know if that was the true motive for the killing. He did, in fact appear in the above scene in the movie for a split second.

    Several years later, (late 80s) while I was stationed in Pittsburgh, one of the Penn. State Cops attached to our office told me that he had been used as an extra in the scene in a bar as part of the wedding reception. Small world.

    Gary Fouse
    fousesquawk

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