Pattaya's most famous industry workers explored by Canadian art photographer

[Jingthing]

OK, these are some pretty amazing and moving ART photos of a subject most Pattayans are well familiar with either superficially or deeply -- the world famous sex workers of Pattaya, female, male, and ladyboys.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/01/09/gerry_yaum_photographs_sex_workers_in_pattaya_thailand_in_his_exhibition.html

They ALL look so very SAD in these photos. These photos are clearly NOT about titillation! (So if you're looking for that, wrong place.)

While I recognize these photos as genuine photographic art (by GERRY YAUM of Canada), I do wonder what people who actually live in and visit Pattaya actually think about the agenda of the artist.

As follows, he clearly does have an agenda:

Over the years, Yaum said he has struggled with how to photograph his exploited subjects without exploiting them himself. “The conclusion I came to after talking to others and thinking about this for some time was that I needed to understand why I was making the pictures, what my goals were, what was the reason behind it all, what was I trying to express,” Yaum said. “In your inner heart you know why you’re doing something, you know if it’s right or wrong, you know your true motivations. If you’re doing something for the right reasons, for a greater good, then that's the path you want to be on.”

While Yaum hopes that his photographs can serve as an agent of change, he said he fears that the sex industry in places like Pattaya has only grown since he started shooting there. “As long as there is poverty in places like Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines, there will be workers for the sex tourist bars of Southeast Asia. The only hope for the bar worker, as I see it, lies in education,” Yaum said. “Education can lead to other opportunities that might keep the worker from coming to the bars in the first place. No Thai girl or boy dreams of becoming a prostitute. No one dreams of selling their body for a living. Most work the job purely out of economic necessity. Give them other ways to make decent money and maybe things will change.”

Surely, of course, many of these workers are as SAD as they appear in these photos. But this artist ONLY shows sad. Does that represent the reality or not?

On the chance that the artist, a regular visitor to Pattaya might see this thread, I'd like to express my admiration for his talent and also a welcome to comment here as well!

******

Posting this topic (with some trepidation) after reading the forum rules below which I interpreted as this would be OK as long as it was about the angle as I proposed, basically do these SO VERY SAD art photos really represent the REAL reality of Pattaya Thailand sex workers (and not the other stuff you can find on a nightlife forum).

8) Not to discuss the specifics of prostitution.Thailand has a visible sex industry, and acknowledgment of that fact is not forbidden. However ThaiVisa is not the place to seek or give information on this topic, regardless of your sexual habits, preferences or orientation.

Edited January 16, 2014 by Tywais
Changed from Code to Quote to remove scroll bars

[OccamsRazor]

Those photos are what he was specifically going for and doesn't tell the whole story at all, only what he wants to interpret it as. Just as easy for a photographer to have happy photos to contrast the story. In other words, it is an artificial representation of his thoughts on the matter and not the full reality of it.

[manarak]

These photos do not represent the reality of Pattaya, they represent the photographer's feelings.

next...

[RAZZELL]

Pretty bog-standard portraits. Nothing special at all.

I would have much preferred the pics in situ showing the good, the bad and the ugly.

RAZZ

[Jingthing]

These photos do not represent the reality of Pattaya, they represent the photographer's feelings.

next...

Yes, I see that aspect, but I think you'd have to be made of stone not to feel similar feelings from those faces in the photos. Behind the smiles, as it were.

So those feelings, I don't really think were projected onto the subjects. He captures something very real about the subjects. I guess my feeling is that this realness he shows is part of the truth of the industry, but not the entire truth. In the link, the artist questions himself about whether he himself is "exploiting" these subjects which he clearly sees as unambiguously exploited workers. That's an interesting question too. Is he?

Edited January 16, 2014 by Jingthing

[manarak]

These photos do not represent the reality of Pattaya, they represent the photographer's feelings.

next...

Yes, I see that aspect, but I think you'd have to be made of stone not to feel similar feelings from those faces in the photos. Behind the smiles, as it were.

So those feelings, I don't really think were projected onto the subjects. He captures something very real about the subjects. I guess my feeling is that this realness he shows is part of the truth of the industry, but not the entire truth. In the link, the artist questions himself about whether he himself is "exploiting" these subjects which he clearly sees as unambiguously exploited workers. That's an interesting question too. Is he?

There are questions worth asking and others not - not because the question is worthless in itself, but because the question doesn't have useful answers.

"The truth" - Western singular ?

[Fabulousheart]

Sadly once the money starts flowing the reasons they entered into industry gets lost very quickly. I think the photos are very limiting. It would be an interesting photo study to take pictures on first day starting vs 1 month, 6 months, a year , multiple years as a time lapsed photo essay. I think that would have showed what he was trying to depict. Unfortunately these pics fall short of the true impact.

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[vtjforyou]

I love sad girls and I would love to see them cry !

[phycokiller]

he paid them to say what he wanted them to say and look how he wanted them to look, nothing wrong with that but its his viewpoint and not theirs, and its obviously a view point that he thinks others will share with him, but I dont and I find it uninteresting

[phycokiller]

I love sad girls and I would love to see them cry !

would love to see Jill Greenburg do a series like that, snatching the money back out of their hands and then photographing them, would be much more interesting and revealing

[Tchooptip]

These photos do not represent the reality of Pattaya, they represent the photographer's feelings.

next...

"the reality of Pattaya" or your reality of Pattaya? ...their are many realities everywhere, so why not the feelings of those models too

[KhunBENQ]

Twelve persons depicted, one of them supposed to be female (on the low end of the scale) and no smiles.

Highly distorted.

[phycokiller]

These photos do not represent the reality of Pattaya, they represent the photographer's feelings.

next...

"the reality of Pattaya" or your reality of Pattaya? ...their are many realities everywhere, so why not the feelings of those models too

because I think you can be pretty sure they were saying whatever it takes to get the money, if he really wonders if he was exploiting them he should see how far he gets without paying them, pretty sure no photos and no sad stories

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

I followed all the photographer's links to this project. The photographs are great. But his choices offer a very very one-sided view: impoverished, unattractive, untidy and desperate participants at the bottom of the heap. A tiny percentage of active participants. He also never touches on the fact that some very high percentage of such services are demanded by local nationals. If he pictured participants from the entire spectrum, providers and customers, I might applaud his search for the truth. The truth was definitely not his goal.

[Gone]

1) Yes I only see 1 female out of all those photos.

2) If you had ever seen my face working in Northern Canada in -57 degrees without the wind factor you might say these people look happy compared to me

3) I think in general most of these workers are not happy with their jobs. The only time they smile is when a customer buys drinks and they start to get drunk.

4) You might look sad too going to work with the thought that you might have to spend the night with a 78-year-old man that weighs 260lbs.

As far as Canadian Artists/Photographers go, this guy doesn't compare.

[JoeThePoster]

Photo # 6 - I didn't know Naomi Campbell was a ladyboy.

[Jingthing]

OK. I don't think the POV he portrays is deceptive for what it is as an artistic vision but I do question the truthiness of his interview statements. I think the images don't need an editorial message and the one offered sounds a little preachy like coming from a Western save the natives missionary.

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