absolutelyBangkok archive · Culture & Arts
Originally published Feb. 15, 2008
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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