One of the charms of street photography is to tell stories like short phrases, complete in one single photo filled with the beauty and excitement of various phenomena in public spaces. Adam Birkan's work has expanded this storytelling method, using ordinary photos to connect and create a larger social picture from small photos in an interesting way.

"Sukhumvit," a photographic series by American photographer Adam Birkan, who lives in Thailand, captures the ordinary life of the Sukhumvit area, which he uses as a representation of Bangkok. It reflects on the nobody and the powerful in the city, as well as history, society, culture, class, and the old and new generations who are both merged and crushed together.

Each photo creates an ambiguous and weird connection—a bear man selling drinking yogurt in a traffic jam, an old car with a changing environment, a strawberry cake for a well-known Thai politician Prawit Wongsuwan's birthday, a woman in a black dress with a red umbrella in front of a royal portrait. These events do not just capture a decisive moment and end there, but rather capture the rhythm of everyday life and deliberately explain things without giving any conclusion, as if waiting for the audience to create their own answers and connect with these street photos.

"Sukhumvit"
A solo exhibition by Adam Birkan 
Curator : Akkara Naktamna

Kathmandu Photo Gallery 
(Only Tue, Thu, and Sat) 
Between 7 December 2024 - 1 February 2025
[Opening Sat 7 Dec 6.30 - 9.00 PM]

About the Artist
Adam Birkan, a freelance photographer and visual storyteller, earned a Bachelors of Science in Visual Communication from Ohio University. He has lived and worked in Asia for over a decade. He was one of Magnum's 30 Under 30 and PDN's 30. His photographic projects focus on macro-social and economic issues.