Travel & Humanitarian Photos
Keeping to the theme of students who I’ve had the pleasure of working with in recent months, I’m pleased to bring you a small selection of Gaby Thijsse’s photos taken during a recent photo workshop in Bangkok.
Gaby is the wife of professional photographer Leen Thijsse and, as she explains on her web site, “was able to co-assist and co-produce on several of Leen’s assignments around the world, meeting a lot of inspiring and talented people“. Clearly, being able to work alongside and learn from an experienced professional has given Gaby a wonderful sense of light and enabled her to bring a photographer’s eye to her compositions.
I especially liked seeing this beautifully-observed image of a couple in the market admiring a poster of the King of Thailand. The King is greatly revered in Thailand and almost every shop and market stall proudly displays a poster like this. The King is also a keen photographer and many official portraits show him with an SLR around his neck. It’s a common scene but one that tells us a lot about Thailand.
Another favourite is one that will be familiar to many of the students who have accompanied me to the Pak Khlong Market. Deliveries of huge blocks of ice are made to the market by truck and Gaby has a lovely series that document one delivery and which capture the young men whose job it is to unload the truck several times a day.
You can find Gaby’s website at www.gabythijsse.com and I particularly recommend that you take a look at her galleries of Urban Life at the Market and at Chinatown, both of which are populated with images taken during a single photo workshop day. Seeing Gaby’s beautiful images reminded me of what a pleasant time we’d enjoyed during her workshop and of just how much ground we tend to cover in a single day, photographing in Bangkok.
Finally, I’m delighted to see that Gaby will be joining Matt Brandon and I on our forthcoming Kumbh Mela trip in April. Only one place remains on this trip so please let us know soon if you are interested in joining. As you can see from Gaby’s images, we manage to cover a lot in one day so just think what we’ll achieve in two weeks in India during the Kumbh Mela. I can’t wait!
Gaby shots very nice photo…. i like the first photo on this page. the smoking moment.
These are amazing! I can’t wait to shoot with Gaby.
I am currently at the Kumbh Mela. Due to the usual bomb/attack threats from every radical Islamic group in the world there are actually more police and army here than pilgrims.
They are not letting people photograph any where near the main bathing ghats and sadhu camps without a journalist visa. They are generally friendly but watching over everything with a fine tooth comb.
I can only imagine the situation will be worse as the crowds swell and the main bathing dates draw near. You may want to consider advising your group to get journalist visas and not tourist visas.
Wow. It’s beautiful work. And I really like the way she post processed her photos. Very, very nice.
These are very beautiful
Thank you all for your nice responses and thank you Gavin for giving me this attention. I really loved that day shooting and interacting with those wonderful, patient and smiling faces of Thailand. You absolutely know your way around and thought me some of your excellent tricks. It was an absolute treat spending that day with you and I am really excited and looking forward to our trip to India and meeting Matt. I took your advice in setting up a website and hope to share more and more pictures in the future. I try and hope to manage setting up a blog too (^_^)