God with a Thousand Eyes - Early Photography in Thailand （1860 - 1960）

  • God with a Thousand Eyes - Early Photography in Thailand (1860 - 1960) This exhibition explores the crucial role photography...

    God with a Thousand Eyes - Early Photography in Thailand

    (1860 - 1960)

     

    This exhibition explores the crucial role photography plays in Siam, present-day Thailand, from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, drawn exclusively from the rich holdings of photographic images preserved at the National Archives of Thailand (NAT). Formally established in 1952, NAT’s photographic collection originated back in 1916, when H.R.H. Prince Damrong, President of the Vajiranana National Library, began putting together glass plate negatives of images taken by not only the Siamese elite, but also commercial photographers, local and foreign. In 1933, a large collection of glass plate negatives from the old Robert Lenz Studio (est. 1896) were incorporated into the archival collection, thereby preserving the visual record of life in Bangkok and beyond during the first decades of the 20th century.
    According to traditional Thai belief, the Hindu god Indra, also known as the God with a Thousand Eyes, was the protector of the city Bangkok. His thousand eyes are always watching, constantly gazing at the city and its inhabitants. This exhibition – God with a Thousand Eyes - Early Photography in Thailand, 1860-1960 – imagines Indra in the age of mechanical reproduction, giving us a sampling of NAT’s vast and varied collection of photographic images from the past two centuries. Some images are the earliest photographs taken in the 1860s, when European visitors began to photographically record the kingdom; at the same time, Siamese elites were quick to adopt the new imaging technology and use it in their own ways through the decades. This results in a plethora of photographic images which give us a great insight into ordinary and extraordinary histories of people across all social strata, from kings and princes of the royal court in Bangkok to the ethnic people in the periphery of the kingdom.  
    While some of the photographic images in NAT’s collection come with proper attributions, many other remain undated, their creators unknown. This exhibition thus present selected images thematically in pictorial genres, leaving ample space for interpretation and comprehension.  Across genres there are arbitrary issues – gender and class tensions, semi-colonial conditions, modern monarchy, for instance – that can be independently comprehended by visitors. Images are exhibited in a salon-style on neutral-toned walls, at once referring to photographic exhibitions in Bangkok during the early 20th century, as well as the teakwood boxes originally containing the glass plate negatives in NAT’s collection.
    God with a Thousand Eyes - Early Photography in Thailand, 1860 - 1960 hopes to offer its audience a glimpse of Thailand’s constant struggle with modernity in which photographers and their cameras played a crucial role, then as well as now, to capture and transmit to us those fleeting historical moments in Thai history.

     

     
  • CURATOR: Pirasri Povatong Pirasri Povatong is an architectural historian specialising in architecture and urbanism of Southeast Asia during the 19th...

    Pirasri Povatong

    CURATOR: Pirasri Povatong

     

    Pirasri Povatong is an architectural historian specialising in architecture and urbanism of Southeast Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries. Educated at Chulalongkorn University, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with a Ph.D. dissertation on 19th century transformation of architecture and architectural practice in Siam. An assistant professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, he currently teaches design studios as well as courses on Thai architectural heritage. His current research includes building practices and urban cartography in Siam, history of photography, as well as the rise of modern architecture in Thailand. He has also worked extensively with the National Archives of Thailand (NAT) on its photographic collection, making it available to the public through publications and exhibitions. Ongoing projects with NAT include the study of original glass plate negatives, the rediscovered photographic works by Rabil Bunnag, as well as photographic records of King Chulalongkorn’s 1907 journey to Europe.
     
  • National Archives of Thailand The National Archives of Thailand (NAT), Department of Fine Arts, Ministry of Culture, was established in...

    National Archives of Thailand

     

    The National Archives of Thailand (NAT), Department of Fine Arts, Ministry of Culture, was established in 1916 as a part of the Vajiranana National Library, now the National Library of Thailand. In 1952 it became an independent agency under the Department of Fine Arts, responsible for collecting and preserving public and other historical records and make them available to the public. It also advises government agencies on records management and records preservation. Being the largest archive in the kingdom, NAT’s collection consists of over one million historical government and public records, including paper and palm leaf documents, photographs, posters, maps, videos tapes, and sound recordings dating from the mid-19th century to the present. Its photographic collection include 35,427 wet plate negatives, 444,009 photographic prints, as well as 808,693 films. In 2017 NAT’s Royal Photographic Glass Plate Negatives and Original Prints Collection was inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World registry.

  • Sons and nephews of King Chulalongkorn with their cameras. Dusit Park Palace, Bangkok, c.1904. Giclee Print, 42 cm x 50 cm. Courtesy of National Archives of Thailand.

  • Daughters of Prince Damrong. The one on the right in full regalia for the topknot-cutting ceremony, c.1910. Giclee Print, 42 cm x 58 cm. Courtesy of National Archives of Thailand.
     

  • A Siamese couple, c.1910. Giclee Print, 29 cm x 38 cm. Courtesy of National Archives of Thailand.

  • Mom Katrin, the Russian wife of Prince Chakrabongse, dressed in Siamese style. c.1910. Giclee Print, 49 cm x 29 cm. Courtesy of National Archives of Thailand.

  • Members of the Inner Court and their cameras, c.1904. Giclee Print, 42 cm x 50 cm. Courtesy of National Archives of Thailand.

  • Two boys posing with a camera, Prince Damrong's palace at Pratu Sam Yot, Bangkok, c.1900. Giclee Print, 29 cm x 41 cm. Courtesy of National Archives of Thailand.

  • Male actor in Indra, the Hindu god, costume, Mid 19 C. Giclee Print, 38 cm x 30 cm. Courtesy of National Archives of Thailand.

  • A concubine to King Mongkut, in Western-style dress of the Victorian period, c.1860. Giclee Print, 42 cm x 29 cm. Courtesy of National Archives of Thailand.