Lost in a haunting, jarring world, like a newborn thrust into a video arcade straight out of its mother’s safe, dark womb, the astonishing and surreal visions of French photographer Alain Soldeville come to us from the real world unadorned, untouched by photoshop. This is Bangkok as its own evolutionary mutant, monstrous and insane child of rapacious dreams.

Artist’s statement
The aim of my project is to show the Thai capital as a metaphor for cultures in transition. These cultures are caught between tradition – Buddhism and monarchy – and the eruption of globalized modernity. There are many obvious signs of the consumerist evolution of the capital: the anarchic urbanisation, the proliferation of visual advertising in the urban landscape, the mushrooming of gigantic multipurpose commercial centres… My work is about the mutations resulting from this recent evolution. It also explores the spaces that have been left empty by the urban development.

Alain Soldeville has been working as a photojournalist since 1985 for leading French and international magazines such as Men's Vogue, the New York Times, Stern, Newsweek, Marie-claire, National Geographic and Geo. From 1999 he has shifted his skill to focus on contemporary photography and creating a mind-blowing series ‘Body words’. Although he's based in Paris his series have been exhibited extensively in Europe and Asia, specially Thailand.

This exhibition is supported by AF