photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty Eight: Using symbols and metaphors to express meaning > Watched, Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand, 2007
previous | next
16-DEC-2007

Watched, Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand, 2007

While on my way to Vietnam, I passed through Bangkok’s controversial new Airport, and made this image while waiting for my plane to depart. The airport is vast in scale, its departure terminals lined with multi-level mazes of glass enclosed ramps suspended on steel scaffolds. I intended this image to symbolize what travel in the 21st century has become – an ordeal based on lack of trust. Travelers must negotiate this maze of ramps as they are processed by airport security agents. In this image, I pair two people. A passenger descends a ramp in front of us, unmindful of the fact that a distant figure appears to be watching him do so. She may or may not be a security agent. She could even be a flight attendant. But she is in uniform and she seems to have stopped her own descent to watch him moved towards his departure gate. Both people seem overwhelmed by the scale and design of the environment. This relationship of figures suspended in time, space and context, symbolically speaks of curtailed freedoms, distrust, fear, and dehumanization through its scale incongruity, mood, and atmosphere

Leica V-Lux 1
1/125s f/3.6 at 48.7mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
share
Phil Douglis01-Dec-2008 00:17
Thanks, Rose Marie, for returning to this image. Nine months ago, you noted in your first comment how this airport seems to symbolize all of the indignities of travel. You even likened the glass panels to a 21st century guillotine. I responded that this image is all about dehumanization, and it was deliberately created by government thinking. Today you write again, referring to the current protests at this airport, which have paralyzed air traffic, stranded passengers, and put human lives lives at risk, and all of it taking place in this dehumanized, isolated arena of mistrust. When I made this image almost a year ago, I was not gifted with such foresight. However it does not surprise me that such events are taking place in an environment such as this, also because of government thinking and actions.
sunlightpix30-Nov-2008 23:18
Nov. 2008, almost a year after you were there, the airport is taken over by anti government protesters. Over 100,000 travelers have been stranded and trade is paralyzed as the airport is closed during the siege. The widespread unrest and fear plays out in this space of mistrust, dehumanization and isolation.
Phil Douglis28-Feb-2008 19:28
Thanks, John, for summoning the name of Eric Blair and attaching it to this image. Blair, who has been dead since 1950, would indeed be laughing in his grave if he could see this image. It was Blair, working under the name of George Orwell, who wrote of personal privacy lost to national state security in his 1949 novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four." This
image suits its theme quite well.
John Lamb28-Feb-2008 08:40
Like a cat in a bag waiting to drown, this time I'm going down.

Eric Blair must be laughing in his grave. Modern life is rubbish.
Phil Douglis06-Feb-2008 00:53
Oh, i almost forgot, Rosemary -- passengers leaving Bangkok's new airport must pay a $20.00 departure tax, so not only are we made poorer by the experience, but we also must help pay for this place.
Phil Douglis06-Feb-2008 00:47
Thank you, Rosemary, for seeing the metaphorical guillotine in that pane of glass -- it is certainly in keeping with dehumanizing colors, scale, and design of this "21st Century Temple of Transportation." Today's architects often design public buildings to express their own egos and those of their clients -- forgetting that it is the individual human being which should be the ultimate beneficiary of their works. In this particular place, departing passengers are subjected to cattle call check ins, massive lines at passport control, then walk through the equivalent of a mall, where a breakfast roll and coffee costs $12.00, and finally endure rigorous security procedures before descending through this maze to their departure gates to await flights that may or may not leave on time. I wanted this image to express the essence of such a place, and I guess it does.
sunlightpix05-Feb-2008 22:06
I think of this airport as a "Temple of Transportation" in the 21st century.
In classical Greek architechture, temples, public buildings & homes were based on the concept of "Man is the measure of all things." Elements like size, scale color, form, and function were designed with humans foremost.
In this building the size and scale isolates and diminishes humans, the dull grays drain emotions, the mazes detour and delay transit.
Strikingly, the glass in the foreground symbolically beheads the man, like a 21st century guillotine.
Phil Douglis29-Jan-2008 23:58
Thanks, Dave, for turning this image around for us, and making it focus on us. In doing so, you stress the contrasting emotions and cast the dehumanizing airport itself as the cause. As I look at the image in that light, it also seems possible that both of these people may be reacting to my presence with a camera. The man might not want to have his picture made, while the distant woman may be wondering if I am a potential security issue. As for her being almost a "concupiscent figure" yes -- her body does seem to learn forward with a sense of desire. But what is it that she desires?
Dave Wyman29-Jan-2008 23:14
I have a different take on this photograph. To me, both figures seem to be viewing the viewer, rather than the woman in the background looking at the figure in the foreground. And while there is a somewhat malevolent look to the man, the woman, despite her uniform, or because of it, seems an almost concupiscent figure. They are, if you will, a ying and yang of human emotions, set off by the sterile, mechanical, almost anti-human environment of the airport.
Phil Douglis28-Jan-2008 20:16
Beautifully said, Azlin. Airports, which are usually governmental institutions, are places where authority and control are exercised. This image speaks of those things, and as you pointed out, the effect can be claustrophobic. Wherever movement is circumscribed, personal inspections mandatory, and security paramount, individual rights are subordinated and sacrificed. That is what this image is ultimately all about. The man in the foreground may be free to dress as he wishes, only there is always someone in uniform, like the woman who watches him from a distance, to make sure that is as far as his freedom goes as long as he remains inside of this airport.
Azlin Ahmad28-Jan-2008 15:09
Looking at this image, I feel lost and claustrophobic at the same time. Regardless of the vastness of the airport, the bottom line seems to be that the tourist is looking for a way out but is trapped in a modern labyrinth - the sheet of glass (which somehow morbidly cuts across his neck) increases the feeling of being enclosed. There is also a disconnect, the tourist is sloppily dressed, while the uniformed figure at the back seem to be almost an extension of the sterile environment that the tourist is trying to get away from. Thanks, Phil, for sharing this with us.
Phil Douglis26-Jan-2008 19:51
Thanks, Jenene -- the appearance of the man in the foreground, with clean shaven head and casting a baleful eye at us, is indeed cinematic and it flavors the entire image. Both figures appear suspended in time and place --creating an image full of suspicion, which is a universal human value. And yes, there is an ordered sense of chaos here as well -- and this airport is exactly that, as is Bangkok itself. Thank you for bringing these things out. And thank you, Tricia, for coming to this image as well -- yes, we did have a richly fulfilling trip to Asia, as the 107 images I've posted from this adventure will show you.
flowsnow26-Jan-2008 08:51
great dual capture, Phil! Glad you had a wild time in Asia
JSWaters26-Jan-2008 06:53
A very futuristic image, Phil. This place does not seem to be grounded in reality, but is more like a movie set with the action hero getting ready to right the wrongs inflicted by an evil group of malcontents planning the world's destruction. Comment influenced by Hollywood? Of course, but influences are everywhere and this is such a cinematic image, it invites such comparisons. I also like how the image is divided geometrically - it's straightforward, but not. The platform the man walks shows depth, the circular forms of the roof on the left add to the illusion of depth with the woman in the distance confirming it.
Last but not least, my own experience of Bangkok colors my interpretation here....this is the perfect embodiment of the confusion and chaos that is Bangkok seen full flower in a real life structural representation of the city and culture.
Jenene
Phil Douglis25-Jan-2008 00:25
All images are a blend of content and form, Cyndy. I hope that my viewers will become engaged with the content, but if they enjoy the form for its own sake, all the better. Glad you like the contrast of the color in the humans here to the monochromatic context around them. That says something, too. Meanwhile, I also hope you try the icing, as well. Lick the spoon, and taste the message.
Guest 24-Jan-2008 20:47
On first viewing, this image really appealed to me on a purely artistic level. I like the geometric angles, shapes and lines, the overall monochromatic colors, and the sharp contrast between these elements and the human figures, which are represented with their single spots of color. The underlying symbolism is like icing on the cake.
Phil Douglis23-Jan-2008 21:11
Yes it does, Sofia. That is why I kept this image in color, instead of making it black and white. The color makes it real, yet much of that color is gray. It is the reality of that gray glassy look that creates the dehumanized atmosphere here. It is ironic that gray comes to dominate this gateway to Thailand, one of the most colorful countries on earth.
Guest 23-Jan-2008 21:02
The grey steel-and-glass atmosphere adds a lot to the whole composition!
Phil Douglis23-Jan-2008 20:41
You are right, Carol -- there is also a sense of bewilderment here, a kind of disembodied, apprehensive feeling. The old airport in Bangkok is smaller and was essentially utilitarian. The new one is monumental in scale, built to inspire awe and pride, but because of the complexity of its design and its stringent security requirements, it intimidates and confuses more than it impresses. When it first opened last year, some felt that it was haunted by ghosts, and they had monks come in to the place to purge the spirits.
Carol E Sandgren23-Jan-2008 20:24
Maneuvering through any of these huge airports in a foreign country is indeed a challenge, especially when you are trying to connect to your next flight on time! This image is definitely successful in conveying that bewinlderedment on the part of these passengers in and out of that airport. The whole thing seems like an illusion...traveling in a time tunnel of something and not knowing what to expect next. That's the feeling I get from this image. I don't remember Bangkok's airport being that bewildering a facility but perhaps this new one has been built within the past two years. I like the difference in scale of the two intrepid people within the glassy, spacious space within which they are maneuvering.
Type your message and click Add Comment
It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest.
Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help private comment