14 Mar 2013

Same old road, new grounds: 3 digits Ramkhamhaeng

I got a job offer. Nothing related to photography, as this is mainly a hobby and I have never earned any money with it; but the prospect of working at a new place in the near future was the perfect excuse to get me excited, take the camera, and go out to explore the grounds where, most probably, I will spend most of my time soon enough. The road is the same old Ramkhamhaeng friend where I have been living all along, but a few kilometers away, escaping from the city to the NE. Only the name remains unchanged, because the whole area is distinctively different from mine. Less concrete. And more nature.

GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
To reflect in order to hide, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

There is one element, however, that links all the different neighborhoods that make up the vast Ramkhamheng road, and that is water; no matter where you go around the long road, you will never be too far from a stream, a canal, lake or pond; and along the banks of them, life will always sprout, proud and fiercely, relying on that water for most of their daily routines.

GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
Underpass, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

I didn't want to walk along the main road for too long, so at one point I ventured into a smaller soi that was leading to a big neighborhood called Sammakorn Village; it looked like a place I wouldn't mind living in, should I make the move to work in that area, so I entered the community and started wandering around the empty streets of afternoon. The first building that caught my attention, obviously, as it is visible from the very entrance of this secluded world, was the majestic water tank. And we continue spinning around the holy element.

GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
Water tower I, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
Water tower II, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
Water tower III, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

Sammakorn Village is mainly populated by small (and not so small) houses, each one of them with their own little (and no so little) garden, which is a welcome departure from the usual high rise buildings of downtown Bangkok; it's a pleasure to walk the green alleys that spread lazily without any fixed pattern, spotting a few people here and there riding their bicycles, crossing multiple playgrounds and green areas, and even having some breaks by the waters, again, of a few generously sized lakes.

GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
Onshore, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

I left Sammakorn Village and started walking slowly back to town, while meddling from time to time in adjacent streets and fields whenever I saw something that grabbed my interest; the size of the houses was getting bigger as I was approaching the city center, but it was still manageable and cozy, not too unpersonalized yet, and it had an unmistakable nostalgic air around it, as if we were in a period long before ours.

GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
Nostalgia, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

An, punctual as a Swiss watch, as soon as the sun started to lower its intensity, people began to appear from every door and every corner, empty hands in search of something or loaded backs in search of customers, each one on their way, and all ways converging, sooner or later, in exchanges.

GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
Ice cream man, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
Early hunger, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
Always aware, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

Some are about to finish their days and are getting ready to return home for a well earned rest, while others are just starting their shifts now, perfect timing in a city that never sleeps yet works more intensely in the evening hours. However, others are not that fortunate to have a break, and seem to be working there since before we arrived, and will continue long after we have left.

GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
Working colors I, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
Working colors II, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm
There are some universal truths, whether we like it or not, that scream out at our faces every day, yet we don't dare to hear. The beauty of photography is that it can capture them; the cruelty of it is that it will never judge them.

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