This photograph has a story.
Arguably, every photo has one, from the lowliest of vacation snapshots to the grandest of state portraits. But truly great photographs draw you in, make you want to know what the story is.
This isn’t a great photo, but it does have an interesting story. And for some reason, I was drawn to select it is my first submission to World Portrait Flickr group.
This photo is from Sukhothai, Thailand. This was my first big trip abroad, and was one of my earliest favourite photos, taken just a few days after arriving, a stranger in a very strange land.
Thailand is sometimes called the Land of Smiles, and no label could be more appropriate. Here, in rural Siam, where there are many fewer tourists than in Bangkok, smiles come easily and genuinely.
This chap was part of a school fieldtrip to the World Heritage Site (the reason for the soccer jersey uniforms). He was so excited to see a foreigner (for the first time?) that he ran up to me and began calling out “100 baht, 100 baht”.
Silly me, having read much about touts and beggars… I was actually taken aback by this seeming confrontation by a school kid on a field trip. Where was the teacher, anyways?
Until I saw him waving his camera in one hand. A little instamatic, with a flash even. ANd a 100 baht bill in the other.
He wanted to take my photo. And was offering me 100 baht for the pleasure.
Now, 100 baht isn’t a huge amount. About CDN$2.50 back then. But I know that for the average Thai student, perhaps all of 12 or 14 years old, it’s more than chump change.
We came to fair resolution – we traded photos. A fair trade, I’d say.