From the Archives: Adryel Talamantes

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Feb 3

#offchain

October 11, 2022: The abbot of Wat Rat Samakee lights 19 funeral pyres ( 18 containing child victims 2-5 years old and 1 containing their teacher who was 8 months pregnant) during a mass cremation for victims of the October 6th Uthai Suwan day care center tragedy that devastated Thailand and claimed the lives 36 people, 24 of them being children.

About the archive singles
I met Adryel Talamentes in Bangkok back in the beginning of 2022. Photographers from Bangkok, including Hans Kemp, Kars Tuinder, Tim Russell, Kat Jak, Aroon Thaewchatturat, and many more, gathered at Photohostel in Talad Noi. Adryel Talamentes was sitting next to me and we came to talk about photography, NFTs, Bangkok and he was telling me tales from his life as documentary photographer.

"There's no standard way of approaching a story.
We have to evoke a situation, a truth.
This is the poetry of life's reality"
- Henri Cartier-Bresson

The term documentary photography typically refers to artwork that captures a true moment and conveys a message about the world. As opposed to photojournalism, which concentrates on breaking news events, it typically focusses on an ongoing issue or story seen through a series of photographs. Recently I was recalling his vivid explanations and asked him if he would like to share some of his memories from his archives as caption with DRAWLIGHTS.

A soldier’s helmet stands on display fitted with advanced imaging equipment on the first day of the Defense and Security 2022 exposition in Thailand. Held in the massive Impact Convention center in No.

2020/2021: Covid-19 pandemic in Thailand.

Roughly 2015: The great Jeffy of Sandan band at work in Bangkok.

October 13, 2018: A female *mah song* devotee walks with a long metal piercing through her cheek while holding a ceremonial whip and rod.

May 12, 2019: Spectators rejoice and take pictures as a ‘sen’ class rocket flies into the sky.

2020: Mr and Miss Deaf Thailand: a contestant fixes his collar before the start of the pageant.

July 10th, 2022: Worshippers stand a take pictures outside of the mosque after the sermon. Hundreds of worshippers gathered at Bangkok’s Islamic Center of Thailand Mosque in the predominantly Muslim Ramkhamheng district of Bangkok to celebrate Eid Al-Adha. The holiday stems from the shared Judeo-Islamic-Christian tale of the patriarch Abraham being instructed to sacrifice his son Issac to his God, who in obedience to his diety almost performs the act before he is stoped by divine intervention. Thailand is a majority Theravada Buddhist nation, though Muslims make up roughly five percent of the nation’s population.

October 11, 2021: A Ngiew Chinese opera actress wears a plastic face shield while preparing to perform. Every year during the ninth month of the lunar calendar the Nine Emperor Gods Festival, also known as the vegetarian festival, is celebrated in Thailand and throughout other nations with overseas Chinese communities. In Bangkok’s Talat Noi neighborhood the Zhou Song Gong shrine hosts a traditional Ngiew Opera performance. Backstage the actors put on elaborate makeup to assume the roles of royalty and warriors to act out timeless Chinese fables and stories. Over the nine days of the festival devotees of the Taoist traditions abstain from eating meat, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and adhere to other restrictions as part of a devotional religious practice to cleanse the body and mind spiritually.

Artist Bio
Adryel Talamantes is a photojournalist originally from the United States based in Bangkok, Thailand. The identity and memories we experience as a society often define themselves by the historical events we witness, and when such events happen it is photo and video journalists who see history unfold in ways few others do. Adryel’s love for visual storytelling with both still photography and video stems from his desire to share these moments and experiences in a clear, unfiltered context The focus of his work centers on news and documentary subject matter and he has covered stories in Cambodia, the Hong Kong S.A.R. ( China), Iraq, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and the USA. His photography has been published by outlets and organizations including The Wall Street Journal, L’ Obs (Le Nouvel Observateur), Der Stern, The Guardian Weekly, The Times (UK), Nikkei Asian Review, VICE, Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, and Remote Lands among others.

Photographer: Adryel Talamantes
Twitter: @Adryel_T
Instagram: @adryel_talamantes

Photos copyright Adryel Talamantes

DRAWLIGHTS | 1/1 – one post/one photographer, weekly. Off-chain and on-chain. By Peter Nitsch, lens-based artist, a member of Jenny Metaverse and lifetime Member of the Royal Photographic Society of Thailand.