Guest Post – I’ve been exploring serious photographic captures of what Muay Thai is in Thailand, and of Sylvie’s particular experiences as the most prolific western fighter in history, in the country, and as a nakmuay ying, negotiating the traditions, customs and habits of a masculine space. You can find some of the better photos I’ve produced on muaynoir.com where higher definition versions can be seen with a click.
A lot of what I was originally doing was around the concept of Muay Noir. I discuss the beginnings of this theory of photographic aesthetics here, in this Roundtable Forum post on the subject, feel free to add your ideas. But principally it is bringing the aesthetics, and perhaps metaphysics of the Noir universe to the Muay Thai of Thailand.
From there I have, aided by patron supported levels up in camera, lenses and computing power, started experimenting with what I’ve called the Titian Palette, which is a green and yellow color palette used to connote age (patina), build atmospherics, generate bold color focus, and draw on genres as diverse as Sci-fi and Renaissance painting.
I wrote about this here, with Sylvie: The Titian Palette.
The thing is, what really has informed my photography is a deep, abiding love of cinema. Patience directors such as Tarkovsky, Kurasawa, Kubrick have always framed my eye and mind. I’ve filmed a lot of rolling camera captures for the Muay Thai Library project, of course, but my still photography came from a different place. A cinematographic place. I really wanted to start using film (video) to walk through the spaces I was freezing in stills, but to be honest I had to learn a lot about color grading, and there were some limits to the camera I was working with. Finally though I dove in and started making Film Study shorts this week, and also vlogging some of my thoughts about the why and what of it all. I’m not a photo equipment technician, but I do have passion for the image. Below are my first two vlogs and film studies. You can follow these thoughts on Sylvie’s YouTube or my Instagram:
Film Study Vlog #2 – Why I Hate Pad Porn
Film Study Vlog #1 – The Stillness in the Teep
You can discuss these aesthetic impulses and tinkerings on the forum, where I will be posting running observations, and the film studies themselves.
Thank you to everyone who has been supporting Sylvie through Patreon. One of the off-shoots of that support as been this development of me as a photographer. Hopefully something everyone can enjoy and draw edification from, including myself. Vlogging the Photographic Choices
