Beloved Chiang Mai photographer Boonserm Satrapai dies

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Beloved Chiang Mai photographer Boonserm Satrapai dies

By Nisanart Kangwalwong 
The Nation

Photo courtesy Chiang Mai University Library

 

CHIANG MAI: -- Photographer and writer Boonserm Satrapai, best known for his endearing images of urban Chiang Mai in bygone times, died on Wednesday at age 89.

 

He’d been undergoing treatment at hospital since 2015.

 

Boonserm was born on March 7, 1928, the son of Chiang Mai’s first post office director, Phra Artthorakan (Eun Satrapai), and Khamfai Chaiyawan. 

 

Boonserm’s first job was in his elder sister’s shop in Ton Lamyai Market, selling synthetic fertiliser, but he became interested in the photography of his physician brother-in-law, Uthai Sonthinan. It was from Uthai that he gained much of his knowledge about the craft. 

 

Boonserm began spending his spare time taking pictures around the city, and also joined Uthai’s team of public-health officials on excursions into rural areas to fight malaria. 

 

Boonserm’s photos of those efforts were published and were partially credited for securing United Nations funding for the cause.

 

In an era when cameras were invariably expensive, few news agencies had photographers on staff, and if events in and around Chiang Mai warranted visual coverage, Boonserm was often recruited.

 

His favourite pictures were the ones he took of Chinese Kuomintang soldiers leaving the Thai North, bound for Taiwan, in 1953, and of a police raid on a Doi Suthep opium factory the same year.

 

He also took great pride in being the only photographer from Chiang Mai to take still and motion pictures of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol’s visits to the North in 1958-1960.

 

As a staff writer-photographer at the newspaper Khon Muang, Boonserm’s report on the Mra Bri tribe of Nan won a documentary award in 1960. 

 

He was at Khon Muang for about 10 years before moving to Thai News, where he stayed another decade, finally ending his journalism career in 1982. 

 

Boonserm maintained an archive of around 3,000 rolls of film (still photos) and some 8mm and 16mm movies. More are stored in the Bangkok-based National Archive. 

 

A large portion of these images chronicle the development of urban Chiang Mai over the course of 70 years. Boonserm also wrote many articles and several books on the subject, from which young people continue to learn about the city’s history.

 

Boonserm had two daughters – Anchalee Koffman and Pavena Abayani – according to the Chiang Mai University Library.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30324077

 

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