The Urban Lines project is a collection of photographs that capture vignettes of life on the streets of Bangkok. Ben Hopkins meets the photographer Marc Schultz

Bangkok doesn’t lend itself easily to the photographer. Garish billboards dominate the skyline while down below the streets are a clutter of visual chaos. Some photographers attempt to make order of the chaos by deleting unwanted details and employing techniques to lower the depth of field.

For his latest body of work, a native German/American and émigré of Bangkok, Marc Schultz has chosen an opposite approach. Through the use of a wide angle fish eyed lens his pictures embrace the visual chaos that characterizes Bangkok. No items are deleted or added but Photoshop is used to enhance the mood of certain images.

Nearly all of the pictures that make up his project Urban Lines were taken in and around China town and on Ratanakosin Island and, as such, capture the DNA of modern day Bangkok. “Bangkok evolved from this part of the city, China town being the nucleus and it growing out from there” says Marc. “Before the Burmese captured Ayutthaya in the late 18^th century the area that is now the Grand Palace was occupied by Chinese traders. After Ayutthaya fell the royal authorities centered their power around the Grand Palace on Ratanakosin Island. Chinese traders moved to Yaowarat Road which later became the first modern high street in Bangkok.”

The historical heart of Bangkok remains vibrant with trade and tourism while the homogenized shopping centers and sky scrapers of modern Bangkok have yet to encroach. The images, bursting with detail peer into the world of their subjects.

Stained concrete and wire exteriors lead the viewer into interiors typified by shrines that are always kept in immaculate condition. Mobile kitchens billowing steam and hole in the wall restaurants attest to a culture that has made Bangkok as famous for its food as its beaches. In one picture a wiry featured cobbler sits on the street using the tools of his forefathers, the only giveaway to the 21^st century being the sticker of a Japanese cartoon character on his work chest. In another, a novice monk carries an alms bowl past a statue of the Buddha in a Dickensian alleyway dominated by A/C units.

Before beginning the project, which took over a year to complete Marc set himself the discipline of sticking by four rules. Firstly, every picture would be taken through a fish eyed lens. Secondly, every shot would be hand held, thirdly there would be a person in every image and finally every picture would be taken in available light. By standing by these rules the project very quickly took on a unified coherency.

“My aim was to offer a window into Bangkok’s past,” says Marc, “and to show us things in ways we normally don’t see them, this is the art of photography.”

In each of these pictures it’s the characters that shine through. “With modernization a lot of Bangkok is morphing into something that is the same as everywhere else” says Marc as we sit in a Thai café that mimics Starbucks in everything but name. “With development, the levels of convenience are enhanced while the spirit and culture of the city is lost.”

A photograph never changes but the outside world does. Marc Schultz’s images capture something of the soul and character of old Bangkok. Not only do they make striking images in their own right they also act as a reminder of why the history and culture of this vibrant city should be preserved against faceless development.

Marc Schultz’s project Urban Lines is currently on show at:

Face Bangkok Restaurant

29 Sukhumvit Road Soi 38 (BTS Thong Lor Station)

Tel: 02 713 6048

www.facebars.com

Exhibition runs until: 10 March 2010

www.urbanlines.asia

www.marcschultz.com