The Golden Triangle embraces parts of Burma, Thailand, and Laos that line the Mekong River valley. For centuries, it has grown poppies and traded in opium and later heroin. As an educational venture, Thailand has built a spectacular museum documenting the history of this sordid story. I was not allowed to make any photographs inside. While the building itself was well designed, its architecture and setting were not particularly unique, so there was little reason for me to photograph it on its own merits. I did make one expressive photograph that afternoon, however, just before we left Thailand for Laos. I positioned myself at the end of the museum’s long outdoor walkway, framed by columns, and plants. I did so because of the warm light, and the striking shadows thrown on the end wall by a perforated overhang. I waited for a person to come out, and wanted that person to be anonymous, walking away from us rather than towards us. I wanted that person to be small, to create scale incongruity. The Thai authorities had prevented me from commenting visually on any aspect of the drug problem this building was built to explain. But they could not prevent me from making this shot, which comments on the nature man’s relationship to institutions. A young woman came out the door and began walking rapidly away from me. I felt as if she was somehow trying to escape from the overwhelming institution that surrounds her. This is a building picture on one level, and social comment on another.