Chinatown

Yvan Cohen’s journey through Chinatown is a personal odyssey – a visual exploration of a part of Bangkok that still echoes with history, that is still rich in culture, that is still home to vibrant communities.

What began as a fascination for the light, the shadows and the theatricality of Chinatown has evolved – over almost a decade – into a mission to preserve the memory of a quarter on the cusp of change.

With the arrival of the MRT and the advent of fashionable business ventures seeking to repackage Chinatown’s unique ambiance, one has a sense that perhaps a further decade from now these pictures may become precious reminders of a lost era when Chinatown was nothing other than itself; extraordinary for its authenticity in a city increasingly defined by the soulless forms of prefabricated modernity.