Travel & Humanitarian Photos
It’s been a case of going from the sublime to the ridiculous this week. I left the tranquility of Ko Samet and returned to Bangkok in order to photograph the annual Wai Kroo Tattoo Festival at Wat Bang Phra.
Devotees gather at the Wat, about 90 km outside Bangkok, every year to pay respects to their Buddhist master and to receive protective tattoos. The tattoos are deeply symbolic and are believed to bring magical protection from bullets and knives. For this reason, many of the people attending the festival are rumoured to be police, soldiers and members of the Thai criminal underworld.
The action gets underway very early and by 7am there were already many people inside the temple buildings, awaiting their turn at the tattooist’s needle. Needles are very long, very sharp and very shared. Despite this, I’ve read that there have been no reported cases of Hepatitis being transmitted by shared needles. Some suggest that because the needle does not have a reservoir, it cannot carry enough blood to be a problem whilst the majority being tattooed no doubt put their faith in the mystical, protective powers that the tattoo carries.
Outside in the temple grounds a crowd gathers, several thousand strong but it’s difficult to estimate accurately as large numbers of people circle the grounds, taking shelter from the blistering heat beneath trees, canopies and umbrellas. As the monks at the front of the crowd perform their sermon, some in the crowd begin to grunt and growl. It’s an unnerving sound and an even more unnerving sight as devotees begin to rock and shake. Nearby friends try to calm them by rubbing their ears but many break free. They have entered a trance-like state where an animal spirit has overtaken their mind and body. Some stamp slowly forwards, bent forward with raised arms, like a buffalo. Others hiss and slither, snake-like, along the tarmac towards the front. Many are clearly possessed by monkey spirits and they rush forward, yelping and screeching, paying little attention to the people sitting in their path. Tiger spirits sweep their hosts forward in a sprint, rushing the cordon of soldiers at the front of the crowd but occasionally tripping and stumbling head-long into their neighbours.
A few minutes after I arrived in the temple grounds I saw a fellow photographer, just a few yards away, knocked clean off his feet. He landed with a chilling thump, face contorted in pain, and clearly could not move. We later learned that he’d broken an arm. Injuries are apparently common and participants, almost entirely but not exclusively male, have been encouraged not to bring their girlfriends to the festival as so many have sustained bumps and bruises in previous years.
It was a quite extraordinary spectacle and definitely an event where you have to be on your toes. It’s wildly hot and the action is unpredictable. It all comes to an end rather abruptly when the sermon concludes and everyone marches calmly forward to stand beneath a spray of holy water. The crowd disperses, with participants heading back to their cars, bikes or to nearby restaurants by the river for lunch in the shade.
I’ve purposely made the images in this slideshow quite large so they may take a while to download on a slower connection. Please be patient.
I’m hoping to pick out one or two images to review on this blog during the course of this week. It was an unusual event for me to photograph and the techniques involved vary a little from my usual, calm and considered approach so I thought I’d share them with you. If there are any shots that you’re expecially interested in talking about then let me know in the comments below.
Other Information:
Sak Yant web site
Wat Bang Phra on Wikipedia
Gavin,
This is terrific- what an amazing event and you have done a fantastic job of capturing it. It’s photojournalism at it’s best as you have captured a variety of images to support the story and used lots of interesting and dynamic angles when taking the shots.
I love the way you have got right in close with some of the shots it makes me feel that I right there alongside you. Also like the way you have used a wide angle lens up close and used the panning shots to isolate the subject.
Do you do any ambient sound recording at these events? It really would add another dimension,to your slide shows. Hearing the sounds of the people possessed by the animal spirits would be amazing.
For another post, can you share with us how you approached shooting this event – the equipment you used (was it two camera bodies with different lenses attached, did you use flash etc. And, how you approached the shoot itself – did you have to have a press pass etc? I for one would think it would be really interesting to hear.
Thanks for posting your images. It’s great to see that even an experienced photographer like yourself is pushing his envelope in different directions.
DT
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing.
As DaveT says, you have very successfully managed to transport the viewer to the scene. Brilliant action shots, but you have told the story from a place of relative calm building to a scary crescendo of mass hysteria, acting out, & `men behaving badly` based on beliefs & culture right through to a crowd-calming dousing with holy water. It`s brilliant and, whatever one`s view of the event, your images provide an invigorating and slightly disturbing education but one that`s cleverly not entire as it leaves one wanting to know much more!! I`ll refrain from saying that you must have used a very good camera! Whatever you used, your approach to catching the atmosphere was clearly spot on!!
Great work. I found it oddly soothing.
love the lede photo on the page. my internet connection in VTE is to slow to play the slideshow, I’ll look at it when I get back to BKK.
jack
Fascinating.
You must feel pretty privileged just to have witnessed the event – something I’m sure most westerners know little about – never mind being able to capture it on camera.
@DaveT, thanks for your response, I’m going to try and address your points later this week.
@Jeffrey, it wasn’t very soothing on the day Jeffrey but I’m glad you found it so.
@Jack, really interested to know what you make of the rest Jack but have fun in Laos before then.
@Masher, definitely a privilege. It’s just a few hours each year so I was pleased to know people who are aware of these things.
Another amazing festival that I never (probably)would have heard about but for the internet and your blog. Standout images: for me they are the close-up tattoo photographs (the first “detail” shot in particular; it took me a 2nd time through the slideshow to note the little details like the long fingernails of the tattooist, the rings etc), the panning shots and the shots of the soldiers “interacting” with one of the participants- ie rubbing his ears, supporting him (the shots with the “sun flare”). These soldier/participant photographs are really interesting as they show a certain understanding by the soldiers- a positive influence- rather than a negative, “there’s going to be trouble” attitude. I too would love to know the answers to the points raised by Dave T.
[...] up from last week’s post and slideshow about photographing the Wai Kroo Tattoo Festival in Thailand, here are a few reflections on the [...]
Gavin,
I just watched the whole thing. It’s terrific man. Great work. Looks like a lot of madness going on. Wow.
jack
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