Underage: An Award-Winning Photo Documentary of Young Male Prostitutes in Thailand

Book info: Underage: An Award-Winning Photo Documentary of Young Male Prostitutes in Thailand (Hardcover, 112 pages) – Bruno Gmuender, 2017. Language: English.

Underage is an award-winning photographic documentation aimed at understanding the minds of underage male prostitutes in Thailand in a most candid and visceral way. Photographer Ohm Phanphiroj uncovers the life, choice, and consequences that these young boys are experiencing. Underage prostitution results from several reasons, from being molested by family members and/or relatives, poverty, being a runaway, and drug addiction. Underage has been exhibited worldwide, among others at Newspace Center for Photography (2011), Sommerblut International Art Festival (2011), Noordelicht Photo Festival (2012), The Kinsey Institute (2013), Tally Beck Contemporary (2014), Miami Art Festival (2014), and Documentary Arts Asia (2014). The photographic project received multiple awards, i.e. Lightwork (2012), Newspace Center for Photography (2012), Documentary Arts Asia (2014), Columbia College fellowship (2015), Noor-Nikon (2015), Society for Photographic Education (2015). Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Looking in the Dark Corners Art can change lives. However, like other facts of life, it is not always given the opportunity to reach its full potential. Many artists seek to have their work mean something profound, but more often than not, either they miss the mark or fail to find a way to reach those who can effect change. Without question, the work of Ohm Phanphiroj never misses its mark and clearly impacts the world around him. Child prostitution in Thailand goes back to the 15th century. It is alive and well today. It is considered to be a significant contributor to the local economy. Western men travel to the area to connect with women and men of an age that many in their own communities would consider incapable of providing consent – especially in a sexual context. In many cases, these men are not able to have similar sexual relationships in their own countries, as local laws strictly prohibit sexual contact with “underage” individuals. Thankfully, most societies outlaw sexual relations with people under a certain age. It is considered so taboo that if an adult is found guilty of having sex with an underage person, years of imprisonment can follow as well as a lifetime of societal banishment. We live in such a male-dominated, sexist society that we generally think about prostitution only of women. However, male prostitution dates back to the Old Testament. It was prevalent in ancient Greek and Roman times – a period when business models allowed male brothels to survive. There is no question that gay men in the 20th century, and certainly up to the present time, have discovered ways to connect in a commercial setting. It seems clear, however, that over the centuries, male prostitution has been more prevalent in Eastern societies, including, Afghanistan, India, Japan, and elsewhere. Today, Thailand is considered to have the world’s worst record for the sex trafficking of children. Some studies suggest that nearly ten percent of the prostitutes in the country may be underage. Many face serious health threats. Drug abuse is not uncommon. Although the United Nations has acknowledged the problem and sought ways to solve it, because many do not want to even acknowledge it’s existence, there are few resources to help those in need. Since its inception, photography has played a role in understanding such social problems that our culture seeks to avoid. Danish-born artist Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was a New York-based reporter who found that he could effect change by documenting the living conditions of children and the poor in the tenements and factories of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He sought to show his contemporaries (and document for all time) the crime-filled conditions that existed while refined cultural institutions thrived only a few blocks away. He documented life in New York’s tenements at the time when the infant mortality rate was as high as ten percent. He showed us poor, dirty, children, clothed only in rags, living in squalor. These children worked in sweatshops, lived in horrific conditions and were paid only a pittance. They were often made to work in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. This virtual enslavement was designed to increase the financial profits for the owners of local mills and factories. And the Looking in the Dark Corners Hunter O'Hanian Art can change lives. However, like other facts of life, it is not always given the opportunity to reach its full potential. Many artists seek to have their work mean something profound, but more often than not, either they miss the mark or fail to find a way to reach those who can effect change. Without question, the work of Ohm Phanphiroj never misses its mark and clearly impacts the world around him. Child prostitution in Thailand goes back to the 15th century. It is alive and well today. It is considered to be a significant contributor to the local economy. Western men travel to the area to connect with women and men of an age that many in their own communities would consider incapable of providing consent – especially in a sexual context. In many cases, these men are not able to have similar sexual relationships in their own countries, as local laws strictly prohibit sexual contact with “underage” individuals. Thankfully, most societies outlaw sexual relations with people under a certain age. It is considered so taboo that if an adult is found guilty of having sex with an underage person, years of imprisonment can follow as well as a lifetime of societal banishment. We live in such a male-dominated, sexist society that we generally think about prostitution only of women. However, male prostitution dates back to the Old Testament. It was prevalent in ancient Greek and Roman times – a period when business models allowed male brothels to survive. There is no question that gay men in the 20th century, and certainly up to the present time, have discovered ways to connect in a commercial setting. It seems clear, however, that over the centuries, male prostitution has been more prevalent in Eastern societies, including, Afghanistan, India, Japan, and elsewhere. Today, Thailand is considered to have the world’s worst record for the sex trafficking of children. Some studies suggest that nearly ten percent of the prostitutes in the country may be underage. Many face serious health threats. Drug abuse is not uncommon. Although the United Nations has acknowledged the problem and sought ways to solve it, because many do not want to even acknowledge it’s existence, there are few resources to help those in need. Since its inception, photography has played a role in understanding such social problems that our culture seeks to avoid. Danish-born artist Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was a New York-based reporter who found that he could effect change by documenting the living conditions of children and the poor in the tenements and factories of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He sought to show his contemporaries (and document for all time) the crime-filled conditions that existed while refined cultural institutions thrived only a few blocks away. He documented life in New York’s tenements at the time when the infant mortality rate was as high as ten percent. He showed us poor, dirty, children, clothed only in rags, living in squalor. These children worked in sweatshops, lived in horrific conditions and were paid only a pittance. They were often made to work in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. This virtual enslavement was designed to increase the financial profits for the owners of local mills and factories. And the Looking in the Dark Corners Hunter O'Hanian Art can change lives. However, like other facts of life, it is not always given the opportunity to reach its full potential. Many artists seek to have their work mean something profound, but more often than not, either they miss the mark or fail to find a way to reach those who can effect change. Without question, the work of Ohm Phanphiroj never misses its mark and clearly impacts the world around him. Child prostitution in Thailand goes back to the 15th century. It is alive and well today. It is considered to be a significant contributor to the local economy. Western men travel to the area to connect with women and men of an age that many in their own communities would consider incapable of providing consent – especially in a sexual context. In many cases, these men are not able to have similar sexual relationships in their own countries, as local laws strictly prohibit sexual contact with “underage” individuals. Thankfully, most societies outlaw sexual relations with people under a certain age. It is considered so taboo that if an adult is found guilty of having sex with an underage person, years of imprisonment can follow as well as a lifetime of societal banishment. We live in such a male-dominated, sexist society that we generally think about prostitution only of women. However, male prostitution dates back to the Old Testament. It was prevalent in ancient Greek and Roman times – a period when business models allowed male brothels to survive. There is no question that gay men in the 20th century, and certainly up to the present time, have discovered ways to connect in a commercial setting. It seems clear, however, that over the centuries, male prostitution has been more prevalent in Eastern societies, including, Afghanistan, India, Japan, and elsewhere. Today, Thailand is considered to have the world’s worst record for the sex trafficking of children. Some studies suggest that nearly ten percent of the prostitutes in the country may be underage. Many face serious health threats. Drug abuse is not uncommon. Although the United Nations has acknowledged the problem and sought ways to solve it, because many do not want to even acknowledge it’s existence, there are few resources to help those in need. Since its inception, photography has played a role in understanding such social problems that our culture seeks to avoid. Danish-born artist Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was a New York-based reporter who found that he could effect change by documenting the living conditions of children and the poor in the tenements and factories of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He sought to show his contemporaries (and document for all time) the crime-filled conditions that existed while refined cultural institutions thrived only a few blocks away. He documented life in New York’s tenements at the time when the infant mortality rate was as high as ten percent. He showed us poor, dirty, children, clothed only in rags, living in squalor. These children worked in sweatshops, lived in horrific conditions and were paid only a pittance. They were often made to work in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. This virtual enslavement was designed to increase the financial profits for the owners of local mills and factories. And the government did little to improve these victims’ lives. It was not until the public saw Riis’s images that government officials knew something had to change, and child labor laws and minimum housing regulations came into vogue – laws that we take for granted today and which in part define us as a civilized society. Just a few decades later, in the 1930s, Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) photographed Americans in the Midwest who suffered from the ravages of the Great Depression, drought and starvation. It was a time when the US workforce was cut by a quarter. Industrial production was cut in half. For the first few years, especially under the administration of President Herbert Hoover, the federal government seemed unable to reduce the human suffering evident on nearly every street corner of America. Hundreds of thousands of people were homeless and walked the streets looking for shelter or a morsel of food. Documenting the breadlines in San Francisco, Lange took her work to the streets to show the horrific side of the economic tragedy. Sad children, and even sadder parents, found themselves in circumstances denying them a decent life. Many lived in camps not much better than life on the streets. Through her images, society saw decimated lives and vanquished spirits. Much of her work was commissioned by the US government Depression-era project, the Farm Security Administration, designed to eradicate poverty in rural America in part by exposing the problem to a wider audience. It was believed that if people saw the tragic consequences of certain lives, public policy makers might do something about it. Although her work was so powerful and intentionally designed to effect change, for decades many individuals – including Lange herself – were unable to view the work. Similarly, artists sought to add a human face to those who were dying of AIDS in the 1980s. It was a time when the government of President Ronald Reagan deliberately chose to ignore the effect AIDS had on the gay male population in the United States. Without question, some public officials and religious leaders believed gay men to be dispensable – considering a new disease that threatened to wipe out gay people to be a good thing. Artists like Peter Hujar (1934-1987) and David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992) made work in the 1980s that showed the human side of people who were affected by AIDS and what it meant to willfully ignore exploring treatments and searching for a cure. Their work, like that of so many others, helped to make changes in the way people thought about AIDS and its treatment in the 1990s and beyond. Of equal importance to these artists, Ohm Phanphiroj seeks to reveal the horrific lives of underage youth who are forced to take to the streets in Thailand, earning a meager living to help support themselves and their families. Ohm uses his finely honed craft to make a difference. Born in Bangkok in 1980, Ohm artfully seeks to reveal the conditions he finds in his homeland. Ohm’s images of the underaged lurk in the darkened corners of a part of the world that we often ignore. He asks us to travel to places some of us would rather not go. His work is not designed to titillate but exists as a way to see a problem in search of an achievable solution. Like children cast aside in the Lower East Side, or the expanse of a dustbowl on a Texas plain, the subjects of Ohm’s Thailand streets are difficult to see. Gazing at these images allows us to learn the stories of these youths, better understanding what can happen when society intentionally chooses to ignore a segment of its population. Simultaneously, we look away and then are quickly compelled to see more. We want to look into their eyes and understand what they have seen. We want to know the conditions of their lives. We want to know what is in their hearts and minds. We want to know how they will survive. We see in their sad faces the realization that despite their youth or lack of opportunity, they know the possibility exists for a better life. These images are not here for our entertainment – in fact they should make us feel uncomfortable. Despite the beauty of the compositions, each rich in color and natural settings, generations of heartache and despair are evident. While other children are safe in school or have the comfort of a supportive home, these kids are living in cardboard boxes, turning tricks on street corners. One can only hope that upon seeing these images, governments will work to repeal the conditions that allow them to exist. The children shown in Ohm’s photographs are human beings just like us. They need to be respected. Ohm depicts them in positive, respectful, and simple settings. He bravely makes work that challenges our idea about power and who gets to use it. The artist has made the work and shown it to us. The rest is up to society. -- Hunter O'Hanian