{"id":8571,"date":"2021-05-09T08:04:12","date_gmt":"2021-05-09T01:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathmanduphotobkk.com\/?p=8571"},"modified":"2024-02-18T12:50:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T05:50:50","slug":"senee-mongkols-trunk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathmanduphotobkk.com\/?p=8571","title":{"rendered":"Senee Mongkol\u2019s Trunk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senee Mongkol\u2019s Trunk\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

by Manit Sriwanichpoom<\/i><\/p>\n

Size: 15 x 21 cm, 48 pages, soft cover (printed in 2019)<\/p>\n

Price 380.-<\/p>\n

[Text in Thai & English]<\/i><\/p>\n

A Vietnamese soldier lies dead by a ditch as three Thai soldiers shoot at the stiff and bloating corpse from the other side, then throw rocks at it, like nasty boys, except there is no malice; they\u2019re merely making sure the body is not booby-trapped with a mine. In the next frame on the same roll of film, around noon in ceaseless rain, panicking Cambodians laden with possessions run for their life from a Vietnamese attack. These black and white photos taken by Senee Mongkol<\/b> in 1980 had been left in a big silver metal trunk. This treasure chest was recently opened for the first time since its owner died suddenly of a heart attack at the young age of 33 years and 9 months, on 11 March 1986, or over 33 years ago.<\/p>\n

Inside the trunk there are about 50 rolls of black and white negatives and hundreds of slides, all in a state of decay, the melted film sticking to the plastic sleeves. Some pieces had curled up and bent and crumbled on contact. These photos were taken between late 1979 \u2013 1983 and are mostly of Khmer refugees on the Thai-Cambodian border.<\/p>\n

Curator Manit Sriwanichpoom:<\/b> \u201cThe fascinating quality of these previously unseen and unpublished photos from 1979 \u2013 1983 that Senee Mongkol left behind is their childlike innocence, as if seen by a clever, profound child who is attempting to plumb the human psyche. Even in war, in the hour of life and death, human beings retain their gentle beauty, though just a glimpse may be seen as their eyes light up for Senee to capture the image, before their features dissolve again into panic and fear. These hundreds of photographs had been incubating within the metal chest for a long time in the heat and humidity, both accelerating the chemical decomposition of the 35 mm film, altering the colour, curling the negative, some breaking off, turning to dust. But as with well-matured, aged mellow whisky, the newborn aesthetics created by time is fresh and powerful, the memento of humanity\u2019s eroded memories, a thing of beauty nevertheless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senee Mongkol<\/b> (full surname Daimongkol) was born on 4 June 1952, of Mon blood from Koh Kred island, Nonthaburi. While in the second year of Nonthaburi Girls School, he won an AFS scholarship as a one year exchange student in America. Upon his return, Senee dropped out of formal education to live a life of freedom and adventure, first joining Prachatipatai newspaper as both reporter and photographer. His last newspaper job was with Business Times, which closed down in 1979, after which he became soundman for foreign TV news teams. Freed from professional obligations, his photography turned personal, a free labour of love, no longer the assignment of a newsman reporting on a situation.<\/p>\n

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