honorable mention
Daniel Finn-Fitzpatrick united kingdom
title
Urban Ripples
In the weeks leading up to Friday 7 February 2020, Chiang Mai’s south-west corner at Buak Haad Park bustles with people. They are preparing for the city’s annual three-day flower fête. Along the Ku Muang moat’s bankside alamedas on Bumrungburi Road and Arak Road, a pavilion is constructed from bamboo poles and fabric sheets. It contains most of the fête’s stalls and exhibits. On the morning of that Friday, I wake up to a pop-up city and its temporary population of local and travelling stallholders and their families. They are like gravitational waves. They pass through the empty spaces in front of my apartment building and leave these spaces with brief memories of their being there. For three days and nights, I am immersed in streeted recollections of birds of both passage and paradise.
* * *
Photo 1
10.04pm, 08/02/2020, Boonruangrit Road
A view from Boonruangrit Road in the Suthep neighbourhood across the moat to Arak Road in the Phra Sing neighbourhood. The pavilion’s terminus. The moat’s surface is blanketed with litterfall.
Photo 2
10.07pm, 08/02/2020, Boonruangrit Road
A view across the moat to Arak Road.
Photo 3
10.08pm, 08/02/2020, Boonruangrit Road
A view across the moat to Arak Road. Behind the pavilion and along the moat’s grassy bank, some of the travelling stallholders and their families live in tents for the fête’s three days and nights. Some of them noodle for catfish.
Photo 4
10.11pm, 08/02/2020, Boonruangrit Road
A footbridge spans the moat and connects Boonruangrit Road to Arak Road. Along an alameda, the pavilion lolls under the canopy of golden showers, royal poincianas, and sacred figs.
Photo 5
10.12pm, 08/02/2020, Boonruangrit Road
A view across the moat to Arak Road.
My first Series entry* combines some of those images with prose poetry to imagine that dyadic entity of city-man and its characteristic of restorative love.
* 5 photographs from original set of 12; prose poem from original set
My second Series** entry is of a flower fête in the city.
** 5 photographs from original set of 7
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entry description
In the weeks leading up to Friday 7 February 2020, Chiang Mai’s south-west corner at Buak Haad Park bustles with people. They are preparing for the city’s annual three-day flower fête. Along the Ku Muang moat’s bankside alamedas on Bumrungburi Road and Arak Road, a pavilion is constructed from bamboo poles and fabric sheets. It contains most of the fête’s stalls and exhibits. On the morning of that Friday, I wake up to a pop-up city and its temporary population of local and travelling stallholders and their families. They are like gravitational waves. They pass through the empty spaces in front of my apartment building and leave these spaces with brief memories of their being there. For three days and nights, I am immersed in streeted recollections of birds of both passage and paradise.
* * *
Photo 1
10.04pm, 08/02/2020, Boonruangrit Road
A view from Boonruangrit Road in the Suthep neighbourhood across the moat to Arak Road in the Phra Sing neighbourhood. The pavilion’s terminus. The moat’s surface is blanketed with litterfall.
Photo 2
10.07pm, 08/02/2020, Boonruangrit Road
A view across the moat to Arak Road.
Photo 3
10.08pm, 08/02/2020, Boonruangrit Road
A view across the moat to Arak Road. Behind the pavilion and along the moat’s grassy bank, some of the travelling stallholders and their families live in tents for the fête’s three days and nights. Some of them noodle for catfish.
Photo 4
10.11pm, 08/02/2020, Boonruangrit Road
A footbridge spans the moat and connects Boonruangrit Road to Arak Road. Along an alameda, the pavilion lolls under the canopy of golden showers, royal poincianas, and sacred figs.
Photo 5
10.12pm, 08/02/2020, Boonruangrit Road
A view across the moat to Arak Road.
about the photographer
In the summer of 2019, I left England. I travelled alone to the city of Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. I would meet a man. He was about to undertake a novitiate. For almost nine months, I recovered in the companionship of this city and the compassion of this novice monk. I would walk and observe moments of interaction between the street and its inhabitants and my emotions would blossom. I would sit and talk with him and my thoughts would mature. I realized that the city was him and he was the city. They were the one life. To observe the city was to observe him. To talk with him was to talk with the city. They recalled the same memories and recounted the same hopes. I wanted to preserve this experience. I tried photography for the first time to do so. I used my 2016 Samsung Galaxy S7 to attempt mobile and street photography. I preferred black-and-white images.My first Series entry* combines some of those images with prose poetry to imagine that dyadic entity of city-man and its characteristic of restorative love.
* 5 photographs from original set of 12; prose poem from original set
My second Series** entry is of a flower fête in the city.
** 5 photographs from original set of 7
back to gallery