sometimes i sleep in the back of a car….sometimes standing in line at the airport….i can pretty much sleep anywhere…..however, sometimes i stay in the finest hotels…that is, if i am on an expense account of some sort….now is such a case……
there is now an almost full moon rising above the high rise buildings towering over the smallish swimming pool in a hip "celebrity" hotel in the middle of chaotic Bangkok…..just a few weeks ago the "Black Eyed Peas" were hanging around this pool of the Dream Hotel…both nachtwey and i originally almost rejected this hotel for our workshop site, because both of us were thinking bamboo and koi pond motif rather than a Southest Asian version of Miami Beach art deco….but, what do we know??
my girlfriend (below), who had to split Bangkok four hours before my arrival here two weeks ago because of a family emergency, has returned now to check out the full moon with me….my friend and printer and general techno genius, michael courvoisier, is here along with co-teacher james nachtwey and a whole host of my old friends …and new friends in the form of 28, yes 28, students…..
this pool is where we do our slide shows…..big white wall over the pool and hi def projector and terrific sound system…nice place to hang out with a cold beer and slide show rolling…..jim and i did our shows last night…Manit (above), famous Thai art photographer who just sat down beside me, shows tonight….. student show friday…if you are anywhere near Bangkok, please come..
ok, i have to let go of this computer now because we need it for this evening’s 9pm sharp presentation….and i must not be rude to my evening presenter…..
just one quick question for you….if you had come to Bangkok to take our workshop, would you have preferred the bamboo koi decor or would you be rockin’ in the cool Dream Hotel???
Dave,
Missing you in the city, but glad you’ve got a good workshop going in Thailand.
Bamboo Koi all the way. Enjoy your stay. Hey Hey Hey. ;-)
How does it compare to the MArriot in Seoul?:)
Speaking pf which, I saw Chien Chi’s photos from Korea on the Magnum page and I saw a photo of the two waitresses who took our picture at the breakfast. I was hoping to see some of your photos but didnt.
I read your description of “Dream” Hotel and just came to me the vision of you and Natchwey dressed like Sonny Croquet and Ricardo Tubbs dancing at the rhythm of Black Eyed Peas…
what a nightmare…
No my friend I prefer the other hotel… whatever it could be…
saludos…
I wouldn’t mind either as far as the beer is cold.
The dream hotel indeed sounds like a dream to me right now. I do my best to avoid envy but there is perhaps nowhere in the world that sounds more inviting at the moment than to be in the mix with you all, poolside, water dancing beneath the slideshow..give me the dream any day, I have enough reality.
The bamboo and koi place sounds traditional and romantic and everything…but after travelling halfway round the globe–and all the potential craziness that would entail–I’m thinking the Dream Hotel would probably be my first choice.
Bamboo koi decor vs. Dream Hotel??? Cold(er) beer???
How should I say this succinctly… I would sleep in a moth eaten tent in a parking lot drinking lukewarm tap water to attend a workshop with you and Natchwey.
Not that I’m one of those “contentment” junkies, but I’m sure I’d be happy either way—but yes, the beer does have to be cold or the wine, room temperature and the company—inspiring!
Bamboo and koi for me… but maybe a slide show at the Dream just to see it and to go swimming.
David – I left you a message under “workshops”. Enjoy your week and may the shows be inspiring.
Hum, as long as you hang out with good friends, the place doesn’t have much importance, otherwise Bamboo Koi for sure…
I’ll be in Bangkok this Friday! Starting a workshop with Nevada Wier on Saturday. What time is the slideshow? Hopefully I’ll make it!That would be awesome! I’d definitely pick the Dream Hotel. We’ll be at the Shangri-La. :)
Janet
DAH:
I love Manit Sriwanichpoom’s work!! :))…his dream-concepts are as if from the Dream Hotel already :)))))))))….
not necessarily a big hotel fan (unless it’s from a Wong Kar Wei flick ;)), or broken down, wasted-away variety):
david: i dig your pic of Manit: it capture’s his beautifully weird-dream like art! :))…
when u get home, send me an email, as have to know if we should stop in town, as marina, dima and i will be in Philly for X-mas, and marina and i would love to drop by!…
running
hugs
bob
p.s. about hotels: for me: i like to lay my head wherever there is good talk, good booze, good company and without people fucking next to you to keepyou awake ;))….
i prefer strange, Bs: to meet and talking with the owners and to get lost in the tongues of other languages….
Nachtwey looking at our stories…i hope he’s tipsy (or stoned) when you both look at my story: does the aesthetic details good ;))
If there’s a choice then it has to be a little luxury. Why not? So long as I’m not making a big carbon footprint I’ll take the hotel. Such pleasures are few and far between.
To answer the question, I would prefer whichever hotel were more affordable (read “cheaper”). Boring answer, I know, totally devoid of aesthetics and romance…Who invented money anyway?
David, I sent you an email about visiting. As soon as this cast is off, I’ll be making plane reservations. Let me know when you will or won’t be around.
Have a good rest of the week.
Ciao,
Michael
What really sounds suggestive for me is the nice atmosphere with your fellows, students, girlfriend, beers and full moon…. Sounds like you’re having a great time!!!! Enjoy it…
This is a question so far beyond my limited range of experience that I have no clue how to answer it, so I’ll say the expensive one, especially if I can charge the bill to someone else.
Great to hear from you David.
The pool side picture is great but it could be anywhere, shit that could be up the street here in LA, one of those hi rolling hot shot spots. However, knowing that its actually in Bangkok makes it really exciting for me. It really sounds like a lot of fun. I bet that place is pretty cool, but I would probably lean towads something more removed, where I maybe could hear the sounds of nature, maybe a more meditive spot, trees, birds, fire pits, locals only type of thing. Maybe thats wishfull thinking, hey, I can have a little dream? those places still exist, right?
Anyway, I wish I could make something like that out there. Sounds Awesome!
Would prefer any hotel, good bad or losy just to attend the workshop;) What about an european version?
Nice shots. M8?
David wrote: “…both of us were thinking bamboo and koi pond motif rather than a Southest Asian version of Miami Beach art deco….but, what do we know??”
.
I ask myself the same question. What do I know??
Sometimes life becomes spicy going with the option least considered. Enjoy!
–
Confession time:
Thanks to you, I am slowly finding my way, my style. Little by little.
For the record, what attracted me to you as a photographer years ago was based on a NG article revealing your simplicity. Somehow it struck a cord deep within. No, I didn’t want to be like you or copy your work, I just was left with internal peace and a certain understanding about myself.
I think my recent internal unrest/struggle has been related to breaking from this simplicity. Its been building up for months.
However, last weekend, I forced myself to strip all equipment down to one camera and one fixed focal length. Nothing else. Simplicity.
(Remembering that NG article to center myself.)
Last night, I was dancing with friends on the dance floor- camera in the right hand, beverage in the left [doing the DAH shuffle]. Pure internal peace; pure bliss!
Thank you for just being yourself and sharing.
-jason
only good company is important… with good company i can sleep on the ground, with bags flying arround be, even without tent…
when company is bad or i will be alone, even dream hotel will not be good
have fun David!
Well, Aga, I guess that I count cold beer as good company :oD
I’m off to meet some friends on Saturday and I’m a bit annoyed that most of them did not want to stay at a ‘flea infested den’ as some online reviewer put it.
If the bamboo and koi place is equallly as luxurious that’s the one I’d choose. There is a hotel there (sukkothai?) I’ve seen photos of that has old temples and other old buildings incorporated into the design…looks gorgeous. I’m all for preserving traditional architecture rather than recreating the same look we just left behind in America..I just don’t understand going halfway around the world to hang at Starbucks and eat pizza….and stay in a hotel that looks like it should be in Miami. If the hotel people are trying to cater to foreigners looking for something “familiar” that’s bogus…If it’s actually contemporary Thai design then I suppose there is a place for it.
Then again, I’m moving to New Mexico to rebuild and live in a house made of mud and straw (adobe) so I’m definitely a purist.
Nothing like a good shower and a nice bed after a day running around in the craziness, great architecture or not.
After all the attempts I’ve made to study with James that were cancelled, it will be ironic if he sees my work because of you.
That’s right Cathy, I’ll take the luxury and the koi too..that would be the best dream..
Dream Hotel…Bamboo Koi….either Or , six of one half dozen of the other ,I just got back from an assignment in Dili , East Timor ,had one of those rooms that you can’t wait to get out of – Broken A/C , power Cuts , adjacent to an open sewer.
Can’t be too comfortable hey?
Otherwise no work would be done, I’m sure my time for nice hotels will come!
For me, in Bangkok the question that would matter about the hotel is, is it on the river or not? Of course David in New York lives all the time with that fabulous East River view from his Kibbutz, so maybe he’s jaded and doesn’t crave so deeply the view of the Chao Phraya which is really what to me Bangkok is all about. I used to fantasize having some long-term gig in Bangkok that would allow me to live in a house on stilts along one of the klongs in Thonburi and commute to work by boat. In cities built on the water, the water is where it’s at!
Sidney
I’d have to agree that the Dream Hotel would be one where you and Jim are teaching, cold beer a definite plus. (Somehow I doubt a lot of sleep is getting done.) Koi optional.
David,
I’m with bobblack regarding hotels. He even mention Wong Kar Wai wow!
What I have dificulty in visualize is Jim swiming with hawain shorts and a cold beer in his hand. I just don’t know why…
Glad you all have full moon, swiming pool, your girlfriend, students environment, slide shows…and they say it’s a dog’s life being a photographer ;)
May you all enjoy it ’til the limit. Hopping one day I can attend one these workshops in Europe…Portugal to be more exactly :P
Sofia.. and I am hopping to attend one of these workshops in Poland :-) David… plz, dont forget to make one in Poland! :-)
indeed the dream hotel is quite “funky fresh”.. i wouldn’t care, i’m just glad that we have a bigger room for our morning-meetings, and more comfortable seats :)
by the way, i havent seen you drinking a cold beer at the pool, only these fancy, juicy cocktails.. or was that just an orange juice? ;)
Jason,
“D.A.H. Shuffle.”
Thanks so much for that phrase! So that’s what I’ve been doing all this time!? How cool.
MK
Honestly? It wouldn’t matter! I live in Malaysia.. which is just next to Thailand.. so near yet so far. Have a workshop in Malaysia next time, please? :)
Anyway, i like that picture at the top.
All the best!
Michael K…Dude!
So you have done the “DAH Shuffle” before?
NICE!
I tried it for the first time as an exercise to break up the seriousness surrounding photography.
I Felt like a ‘bar fly’ shuffling along the floor with a half hazard purpose.
What a blast!
j
Just back from Islay so I’d take either right now, as long as its warm!
Its not where you stay, its who you’re with? Also the quantity of real ales on tap.
Have a good workshop!
Hmm.. can we all prescribe the neccessary intoxicants for the reviews of our portfolios? Does your hotel do absinthe?
Cold beer and slideshow…sounds like heaven!
Jason,
Yes, I do the “DAH shuffle” on occasion. And it usually is accompanied by odd looks from some folks. Of course it’s best used in settings where at least some people know you! Weddings, parties, family gatherings, etc.
My wife is not a big fan of my trying it out with her, though. When we dance it should always be about the dance!
Fun stuff though!
Peace.
MK
For me the romance is all in the very low key funky places I have stayed all around Asia, so David and anyone, count me in for a beer tab a few times the amount of the room I stay in any given night.
Been enjoying cold but extremely fair skies in Paris, which is always good for snapping away, I may arrange a little pix diary gallery of sorts to share my stay in paris with the Road trip gang.
Enjoy the hotel David, who knows, maybe the red hot chili peppers are the next band staying there, I hear their singer has a hot thai GF.
Actually, I’d probably be on Rajdamri Road at the Courtyard Marriott. LOL, Dave, have a good one.
DAVID:
for you, your dream hotel…just finished writing a brief essay for the Balkan projection Im showing this week showing work by andrew t, velibor, michael b…and, given your light, thought this for you…
“History begins in the ache of our bones, weeds over and out through the entirety of our thoughts, detours around the crowns of our words and plants itself into the soil of the land we call home, the beginning and ending country of our fleshy lives. History as carriage of breath and story, finger-picked fruit and shade of skin, poked-at place and found corner of shade. Place not as that place writ large and carved in books intemperate but of the full compass of home where people carve out the land of their living and return, in grief and madness or calm and ordination….”-bblack…
now, for sure going to philly, can swing by nyc if ur there…if not, will wait to end of jan…send a note when u return…now, off for a few days…
b
hello David!
If you are in the middle of chaotic Bangkok, this dream hotel is the best solution.. the bamboo and koi decor is nice… but what is true?
Enjoy your stay and we talk soon!
hug, Paula
David,
sometimes you ask funny questions… I prefer Dream Hotel… ok, but how I get to bangkok right now?
have a good time!
Martin
David,
It was absolutely awesome meeting you at your presentations on Sunday even though I was fighting a cold. The moonlight on the rooftop in the middle of the city makes the slideshows even more inspiring. I will definitely be there on Friday to see what the students come up with.
Of my experience in Bangkok this trip, I prefer the location that you can travel around than the atmosphere of the hotel.
sI stayed at my brother’s out of the city for the first three weeks here and I found that it was too hard to get out anywhere although I saw very interesting subjects along the way. Whereas, now I am just not far away from where you stay.
David,
It was absolutely awesome meeting you at your presentations on Sunday even though I was fighting a cold. The moonlight on the rooftop in the middle of the city makes the slideshows even more inspiring. I will definitely be there on Friday to see what the students come up with.
Of my experience in Bangkok this trip, I prefer the location that you can travel around than the atmosphere of the hotel.
sI stayed at my brother’s out of the city for the first three weeks here and I found that it was too hard to get out anywhere although I saw very interesting subjects along the way. Whereas, now I am just not far away from where you stay.
David,
It was absolutely awesome meeting you at your presentations on Sunday even though I was fighting a cold. The moonlight on the rooftop in the middle of the city makes the slideshows even more inspiring. I will definitely be there on Friday to see what the students come up with.
Of my experience in Bangkok this trip, I prefer the location that you can travel around than the atmosphere of the hotel.
sI stayed at my brother’s out of the city for the first three weeks here and I found that it was too hard to get out anywhere although I saw very interesting subjects along the way. Whereas, now I am just not far away from where you stay.
David,
It was absolutely awesome meeting you at your presentations on Sunday even though I was fighting a cold. The moonlight on the rooftop in the middle of the city makes the slideshows even more inspiring. I will definitely be there on Friday to see what the students come up with.
Of my experience in Bangkok this trip, I prefer the location that you can travel around than the atmosphere of the hotel.
sI stayed at my brother’s out of the city for the first three weeks here and I found that it was too hard to get out anywhere although I saw very interesting subjects along the way. Whereas, now I am just not far away from where you stay.
Aga,
Let’s raise hands for workshops in countries that start with P! Like Portugal and Poland. :)
Hi David,
Hope all goes well with the workshop and that the students have a successful slideshow on Friday.
I’m sure that they all brought a portfolio of their previous work to the workshop and that you have seen many portfolios in your time. So let me ask you a question: what, in your opinion, constitutes a good portfolio(aside from good photographs of course). What size should it be? How many photographs? What about the layout and do you prefer an electronic (laptop) presentation over the traditional book?
What do other readers think?
Yes, I’m putting together a portfolio: how did you guess?
Best wishes to all,
Mike.
Rockin at the dream hotel….if I had known Michael was hanging out with you I would have had to made the trip to the Dream Hotel.
Michael Rawcliffe,
Regarding portfolio size… about 20 of your best images are more than enough for any reviewer to get a good feel for your abilities/style/vision. If you’re sending out a lot of stuff, say for magazine work, a cd might be the smart move. If you happen to be able to walk in and sit face to face I’d say bring an actual picture portfolio. There’s nothing like the tactile sensation of paging through real photographs! But maybe that’s just me.
Good luck with it!
Sofia.. i really like your idea ;-)
Sofia, Aga … me too… but Poland should be first!
Martin