BANGKOK – Freelance photographer Tom Henry left the gruesome scene of a traffic accident in a huff yesterday as his trip to the deep south failed to yield any beautiful pictures of corpses, tragedy or hardship for the fourth consecutive week.
Henry, whose bread and butter is stylized images of disasters in impoverished areas, had been in Pattani since early January, waiting out a lull in serious violence that has left the freelancer frustrated.
“I completely wasted the last month watching people drink tea and waiting for someone to get shot up, beheaded, or at the least cut down by some shrapnel,” he said while flipping through shots on his iBook. “Look at this. A picture of my own shadow on a wall.”
Desperate for a photo opportunity, yesterday Henry even rushed to the scene of a small pile-up of cars, a motorcycle, and a bicycle along a country road but the horrific accident also failed to yield any results.
“The composition of the wreckage and the dead bodies was just all wrong,” Henry lamented. “I couldn’t make it work. If only the little girl riding the bike hadn’t been completely crushed by the car I might have had something. Instead, she was obscured under the axle.”
Henry asked several medics if they could position the bodies and wreckage but “they did it so fucking slowly,” he complained. “By the time they were done some clouds rolled in and the light was no good.”
Two beheadings in Pattani this week only frustrated Henry further.
“I had spent all month there and then suddenly decided to go to Hat Yai to look for some enslaved prostitutes. What do you know? As soon as I leave, two guys have their noggins sawed off just as the sun is coming up.”
“Just my fucking luck,” he said, shaking his head.
