Night Wander
January 6, 2021
Say something about yourself?
Hi, my name is Mintra. Science and Art were my favorite subjects in high school. I had the typical photography story and fell in love with it since then. I studied photography for undergrad at KMITL, Thailand. Then I worked as a fashion stylist for a fashion house in Bangkok. I love fashion but there was something that I think they didn’t go together between living and dreaming, so I crossed the border to attend the Academy of art university for grad school. I did wedding videography for Bay Area Videography in San Francisco for almost 5 years. I came back to Thailand at earlier this year. Now I live with my parents and 2 dogs in my hometown, Lampang.
What is your series?
“Night Wander” is a collection of images that include fine art at night landscapes of suburban houses and portraits in the S.F. Bay Area. It has evolved from my previous body of work, which I worked on over the last year. Night Wander represents my struggle being far away from my home, family, and friends in Thailand. The primary concept is feeling cut off from my familiar experiences in Thailand where I grew up. My feelings and emotions are represented by the darkness of “the exteriors” of far away from the ones I love. I also wanted to explore the contrast between the visual expression of the emotions I feel being away from Thailand and living in the U.S.A, with “interior human activities” that reminds me of being with family and friends back home in Thailand.
How /when did you start this series?
It started since I had been very far away from my home for the very first year in 2014, the words “loneliness” and “longing” resonate with me. I used this opportunity to express the experience as a concept for my thesis project when I was in grad school, The Academy of Art University.
What message do you want to tell the audience?
My concept is about my homesickness. Living in a big city, different cultures, and unfamiliar may not be a situation that everyone can relate to, However, feelings of loss, solitude, and loneliness are universal. When audiences look at my work, the images will not only show a certain visual perspective but also they will be a vehicle of expression for communicating this sense of solitude and loneliness. I hope people can see the subjects as if they were viewing them with my own eyes, through my shutter, and enable them to identify with my inner solitude. Hopefully, the work will generate feedback from others who might share their varying experiences of longing for home with me.
Any news or updates?
My life right now is kind of laid-back from what I used to be for the past 5 years. I’m a full-time daughter taking care of my parents and taking over my dad’s business, but I still keep my career, working as a freelance photographer. Most of my clients have hired me to create lifestyles, and travel articles/content for various websites. I also teach fine art photography classes at Chiang Mai University. In January next year 2018, I will have an exhibition hosting with a group of teachers at Chiangmai Mai University.
Mintra Wongbanchai is a photographer based in the heart of Thailand-Lampang Province. She completed her bachelor degree in photography at the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology in Bangkok,Thailand. Then she took a job as a freelance fashion stylist at a fashion house in Bangkok.
However, the work was more oriented towards styling than photography. Since then, she decided her primary goal was to become a photographer and moved to San Francisco in 2012 to study photography.
Her education at the Academy of Art in San Francisco was like opening up a new horizon for herself in photography. She started to understand the art of photography.
She appreciates working with long exposures and the specific techniques necessary for this kind of photography. She believes that night time could relate the way she feels, the quietness and the solitude of the night help her find her own tranquility, as well as she tries to bring this original enthusiasm to every project she works on.
https://www.mintrawongbanchai.com
https://www.instagram.com/mintrawaldo
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