Phuket dot net

Kornkrit Jianpinidnan is a Bangkok-based, internationally renowned photographer, having been part of exhibitions in Tokyo, Barcelona and Brussels. Having grown up in Chiang Rai, he moved to Chiang Mai to study in the faulty of arts at Chiang Mai University.

Kornkrit majored in printmaking and quickly came to the decision that Chiang Mai was just too small and limited for his own creativity. “I came to Bangkok in 1998 because there was nothing for me in Chiang Mai,” he says. “I love Chiang Mai, but for my career I had to move. I got out of Chiang Mai as soon as I graduated, on the very same day.”

Kornkrit’s manner is incredibly soft, and his sensitive nature emanates from his nervous body language and the conflict he seems to feel with the outside world. 31-year-old Kornkrit’s love of photography was not discovered instantly. “At first I didn’t like photography because I was not so good at the chemical and mathematical side of it, but after time I came to understand the theory of it better, and so I can do what I want to do more now,” he reminisces.

Kornkrit’s latest solo exhibition is somewhat striking to say the least. The first impression of the white room on the seventh floor of Chulalongkorn’s Center of Academic Resources is that it is very bleak. Not only is it bleak, but there is an unconventional feel about this exhibition. The photographs are not presented to the audience as one might expect. Towering images are placed on the floor, leaning against the walls. Three projectors are pointed towards three of the walls surfaces, displaying slide shows of enormous, blurry images, with hints of colour that evoke pure intrigue.

A ghostly invisible man dressed all in back leans against a tree. The picture is taken from one of Kornkrit’s previous projects, ‘Invisible Man: Leave.’ “The Invisible Man series of photos is about the past. The idea is about a person that doesn’t want to live in the city. He doesn’t know where to go in his life and when he feels so sad and down he suddenly disappears. The invisible man represents parts of me and parts of people around me. It is about people that want to change.”

Elsewhere, the silhouettes of raging horses are shown on five, large prints. “The horses are from a previous exhibition. I love the shapes of the horses and the feeling of them running.”

An image of a bed of sand coupled with another image of a shooting star ripping through a Bangkok skyline add to the stark mood conjured from viewing Kornkrit’s work. A chain of 25 prints adorns the far wall of the white room, with lifeless images of Bangkok by night. “The concept of the longer set of pictures was that something strange happens in the night. You look to see something, some secret that presents itself to you, and you want to know what it is. It is something from the most simple of scenes that present itself for you to investigate.”

“I enjoy using my photography to tell things about my life and the things that are surrounding me. I am expressing something that I want to tell the world. My pictures are me telling parts of the story of my life. Sometimes I tell about good things, and sometimes about bad things.”

Kornkrit’s exhibition is aptly named ‘Ghost Story.’ “I began this project of Ghost Story by looking at my older pictures from other exhibitions,” he explains. “I looked for things that are strange in my past work. This exhibition is about my past, and about things I cannot forget. Like my ex-lover, or a mistake that I may have made, or a bad feeling that I may feel. A feeling I may feel when I walk down the street and it just comes to me.”

His recent focus on urban landscapes may have come as a result of his father’s death. His views on life shifted somewhat and he began to take in the alienating, haunting images that one might not usually associate with Bangkok. If his work is a reflection of himself, then his thoughts must run deep into dark places. “My inspiration comes from things I see everyday, and also a lot form my fantasies and dreams. Sometimes I just look at an object and I get inspiration from that.”

One noticeable attribute of Kornkrit’s photography is that it defies you not to look deeper into the image and question its meaning. The images are dark, occasionally blurry and their strangeness comes in the menial objects and situations he photographs, transforming them into something new. “My work used to be a lot more blurred that it is now. At the moment I am trying to use a little bit more colour and contrast. In this exhibition I am talking about the night,” he explains.

“In a previous show I looked at how to pass the night, but Ghost Story is another concept entirely. I wanted to say that so many different things happen in the night. I wanted to explore that emotion,” he says.

In the future, Kornkrit says he wants to continue with his projects. He says that he can already feel which elements of his current work are exciting him, and these are the elements that he wants to explore further and develop into new themes. “With this exhibition I want to tell stories. Sometimes you cannot find an answer, there are only questions. The ghost element represents things that come up that I don’t want to feel in my life.” Kornkrit clearly thrives on exploring those emotions that frighten and disturb him the most, which must be a reason why his work feels so emotionally involving.

“I sometimes make money from my work, but sometimes it is not so easy. I also do a lot of commercial work and private work when I can. If I am working on fashion projects then things are good for me,” says Kornkrit. As a photographer Kornkrit is hoping for more commercial, private work for the future.