I did not know the location well as I had only passed through it and knew it would be an interesting but challenging place to photograph. As I didn't know the actual name of the district I ended up getting lost in a taxi. After an hour of heavy traffic jams I jumped out from the taxi and made my way in the general direction of where I thought the streets were that I wanted to photograph.
Sure enough, after a few blocks I started to recognize the place. This is a poorer area of down town Bangkok where there are many little work shops and places selling second hand machine and engine parts. I knew the streets were narrow and packed with cars so I was equipped with a wide angle lens.
I was anticipating some negativity from the local dealers - boy was I wrong. I've noticed over the years that people outside of the city were more friendly, but quite shy about having their photograph taken. This would often lead to either posed shots or shots of people looking down or away. In Bangkok it seemed most people on the street did not want their photograph taken and would quite often say "no photo" when asked or it was made obvious what I wanted.
As I made my way down this street, everyone one I asked said yes go ahead and all seemed quite happy to have their photo taken. Some even wanted to chat for a while. This was a problem because none of them spoke English and my Thai is limited. By the time I had got half way down the street, people were actually asking me to photograph them and their co-workers. It was a really amazing experience.
I've posted a few sample below, but have kept the best ones back for my assignment submission. I plan to return at night time to try and capture a different perspective of the area.
The corn vendor
The kitchen
Pulley system parts
Winches repair shop
Wooden tub maker
Riverside merchant
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