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A project by Manit Sriwanichpoom

Rediscovering Forgotten Thai Masters of Photography is a beautiful exhibition (available until 21 July 2018) located on the concourse level within the Lee Kong Chian University of Singapore Museum. The exhibition is a project by Manit Sriwanichpoom, that collaborates 247 remastered images taken in Thailand during the 1950s-1970s. These prints were taken by seven different photographers:

Buddhadasa Bhiku

Liang Ewe

S.H. Lim

Saengjun Limlohakul 

Pornsak Sakdaenprai 

’Rong Wong-Savun 

M.L. Toy Xoomsai

The project’s collaboration with NUS Museum offers the construction of content and methodology, while proposing photographic archives as a language in discovering and establishing histories. According to Sriwanichpoom, the connection between Thai and Singaporean photography has a lineage of over a century, yet both Thailand and Singapore remain unaware of the special dimension of our relationship (NUS Museum, 2018). Sriwanichpoom also made it evident that the reason why Thai photographic work of the past had not survived (and therefore the lack of awareness of the relationship between Thai and Singaporean photography), was because the photographs that constituted this relationship had been lost or damaged by Singapore’s heat, humidity or flooding.

Masters of Photography

Manit Sriwanichpoom decided to start up the project in 2010, and the seven photographers he collaborated with were classified as ‘masters’ in his view. To be classified as the work of a ‘master’, outstanding content, perspective, camera angle, photographic technique, and courageousness of the creativity in the social context of their lifetime are the factors that had to be considered in the image. Anything else was too ‘ordinary’ for Sriwanichpoom, as it did not satisfy these conditions. This view of ‘master’ remains to be proven and accepted by the Thai society and the world (NUS Museum, 2018).

“I am both thrilled and honoured that the National University of Singapore Museum has offered to host the exhibition ‘Rediscovering Forgotten Thai Masters of Photography’ at this time. I hope the exhibition will serve to inspire both a curiosity in your neighbour’s past and, finding yourself therein, a sense of our common humanity and shared history.” — Manit Sriwanichpoom (NUS Museum, 2018, p.10)

References

NUS Museum (2018). Rediscovering Forgotten Thai Masters of Photography [Brochure]. Singapore: NUS Museum of Singapore. 

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