One way or another, In order to create great artwork, artists have to find their own way to get into the right state of mind. It can be during the right time of the day or the darkest time of the night, a rough remote place with a surviving situation or a hi-society formal party with a glass of champagne, recalling a beautiful memory of family or a painful part in love life. Mine is the sense of living life that makes me feel alive. Therefore, I have to be right in the field to connect, to experience, to feel the people and the situation for taking photographs.
This is a part of my personal project about LGBTQ families that I would like to document the love and the relationship between two people, in this case, is Janet&Nut.
I decided to do this project since I first hearing about the unequal between the Civil Partnership Bill for LGBTQ and Civil Marriage. For example, if you are an LGBTQ couple living in Thailand and your lover is blackout or unconscious, by law(Civil partnership Bill) you can not sign the medical consent form to allow the doctor to cure your partner (only family is allowed to sign). But you know you can’t wait for long if it is a harmful case. I was so down during imagining myself not be able to take care of my partner. It is a horrible feeling. This photo series is representing the beauty of relationship which is the fundamental of love no matter what sex you are. This project aims to raise awareness of LGBTQ rights as a married couple and be able to fully take care of their family.
In order to capture the feeling, you need to understand the feeling. Listening and gaining trust is the key which the design and the size of X-100V help a lot with my approach. Janet is my old friend that I met from a documentary project 10 years ago. About 3 years ago, I heard that she got married and it seems a lot to catch up so I started off by talking just as I always do in my work. They invited me to join their lives; having lunch and dinner, playing volleyball, chilling at a pool, updating life. It was a beautiful 2 days with 2 beautiful people. They may not be the most romantic couple but spending time with them is memorable. It is really made me feel alive.
Ekkarat Punyatara, a Thai photographer based in Bangkok. He is a visual image storyteller who always raises awareness on social issues in his home country. Now he works as the sole staff photographer/photo editor for National Geographic Thailand.
