me

I have a work permit from the Kingdom of Thailand which says that I teach Ashtanga Yoga, I have a student ID which says I am studying a Bachelor’s degree at Ramkhamkaeng University, and I make and show art in Bangkok.

It’s all true, it’s also true that I studied half of a degree in computer science from Drexel University and that I spent eight years writing Java software during that dot.com thing that happened. A long time ago, I wrote two books about advanced software development but they are so far out of date now that I can’t really see any reason to buy them.

I’ve been practicing Ashtanga Yoga as taught by Shri K Pattahbi Jois for 10 years, and while there was a point where I talked about it all the time, I’ve lately begun to feel that there is little which can be said about the practice. Sure, i drag myself out of bed before the sun most mornings to work through my practice in my living room, but after that I just go about my day. The practice in many ways serves as a foundation for all things, it gives me both physical strength and mental clarity to tackle other things. This site intentionally has no photographs of Yoga asanas, as I feel it is almost impossible to capture the essence of Yoga with a photograph of an asana. Yoga in an internal practice and photographs of asanas draw the focus on an external form. Naturally flexible people will likely struggle the most in learning Ashtanga yoga as the mind will be left to wander. The stiffer your body is, the more focus you will bring.

The degree that I’m studying at Ramkhamkaeng is in a Thai major with a Japanese minor, I’m also studying Sanskrit and Spanish. Being the only white student amongst about 600K asian students gives me and interesting perspective. Up until three years ago, I lived in the USA and even though being gay made me a minority, I was still a white male which from the outside made me look like most other people. It’s not that I feel much discrimination here, just that I’m starting to grok what it feels like to have people stare at me all the time. To have people curious about my every move. To totally stand out in every crowd. This obviously is a big influence on my work.

I’ve studied a lot of different languages, English and Thai are the only ones I can hold a somewhat deep conversation in. I can hold my weight in Spanish, ask really basic directions in Japanese (and maybe understand the answers), can understand a fair amount of French and can understand enough Sanskrit to read basic texts (I can’t really write much tho). All of the language study is in progress, and could very well be changed by the time you read this. I’m starting to work on Lao which doesn’t seem too hard give its similarities to Thai.

In many ways I see the camera as one more language. Using a photograph to communicate is just one more way to get an idea across, sometimes it helps to cross linguistic boundaries and sometimes it fills a space that words can’t quite handle. Working with film and specifically the medium format camera is in many ways as much of a meditation as the Ashtanga practice is. Spending the time to pick out the right angle, the right lighting and the right subject takes that same focus and concentration as the Yoga practice does.

That’s it.

Email me if you want to talk more.