Rediscovering Forgotten Thai Masters of Photography is a research project by Thai photographer Manit Sriwanichpoom, initiated in 2010 to understand the nature of photography in Thailand throughout its unrecorded history. The result of his work is now exhibited at the NUS Museum in Singapore and features series of rare images by seven Thai photographers that Sriwanichpoom has been consolidating. They are Buddhadasa Bhiku, a monk master, Rong Wong-Savu, a recognized writer and artist, Liang Ewe, Pornsak Sakdaenprai, Saengjun Limlohakul, ML Toy Xoomsai and SH Lim. These images by these artists were taken during the 1950s to the 1970s, for purposes of editorials, studio portraits and documentary, as well as even illustrating short texts called koans. The exhibition displays 247 remastered prints that potentially surveys photographic traditions at the onset of modern Thailand, with different types of photographs such as representations of celebrities and lifestyles in coastal towns and in industrializing mainland. Today, Manit Sriwanichpoom continues in the hopes that these materials can lay the foundation of an official recognition of a part of the photographic traditions in Thailand.
Rediscovering Forgotten Thai Masters of Photography
March 15, 2018 to November 2018
NUS Museum
50 Kent Ridge Cres
Singapore 119279
