People have been asking me about how I came up with the concept of the book, so here I will post the Preface page of the book:

Preface

For many years I had traveled around Southeast Asia trying to capture in film and pixels, the beauty and exoticness of the region. Although I tried different lenses, techniques, angles, and anything else I could think of, I just couldn’t seem to get images that excited me and really showed what I felt. I started to comb through the bookstores and surf the internet, but all of the photographs looked tragically alike. One day in desperation, I grabbed a Circular Fisheye lens from the bottom of my camera bag and BAM!! Now with this lens, I could really SEE things around me in a new way. Ah-Ha!! The problem had been that out of context, the subjects in the photos looked dated and stagnant. With the fisheye lens, I was able to better show how subjects fit in their environment and finally was able to capture pleasing images. Armed with this lens, my Thai wife, Apisatha, and I decided to take a year off from our normal work and travel around Thailand. 13 months later, here is our book. I hope you enjoy it!

George Edward Giunca, April 1, 2012

The next day was very exciting as small rockets seemed to be flying and exploding from all directions.  Tents had been erected around the launch areas, and teams scrambled to make last minute preparations for the launch.  On a loudspeaker, the MC was directing the event. One by one each team was invited to bring their rocket to a launch tower, where their proficiency at attaching was timed.

Then the team counted down in unison and Blast Off!  Well, not always, and if the rocket fails to launch, the other members of the team grab the leader and throw him in the mud.

The actual blast-off photo was very difficult to make with a fisheye lens, because I couldn’t get close enough for a full frame shot. As my wife was regaled with horror stories of exploding rockets and hot PVC shrapnel of years past, the MC was calling over the loudspeaker for me to, “Step away from the rocket.”  After three launches I captured the photo above and joined the other spectators, in the “safe” area.  It’s one of the few photos in the book that I had to crop, but at least I lived to confess to it.

Here’s a movie that Apisatha made of the festival. Towards the end, you’ll see me in the lower left, and hear the MC asking me to move (in Thai).

There’s so much to tell about this festival that I’ve added a wiki link for the curious, and this brings the story to a close.  Thanks for viewing.

GEG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Festival

George “Edward” Giunca, grew up on the shores of Lake Erie, in Ohio. While interested in science and chemistry at an early age, his interest shifted to photography, after experimenting with making light sensitive paper. By the time he was 10, he was already developing and printing his own photographs. During this time, he closely studied the photography and techniques of Ansel Adams and Brett Weston and became intent on being a black and white landscape photographer. After winning numerous photograpy contests while in high school, his parents enrolled him in the Brooks Institute of Photography’s Photographic Illustration program. After graduating with a BA, he headed to Los Angeles to work as a freelance assistant. Two years later, after working for some 30 different photographers, he opened his own studio specializing in glamour, lingerie, jewelry and catalogue photography. In early 2005, a friend in Thailand invited him to set up a studio in Bangkok. Since then, he has been based in Bangkok, where he continues to accept commercial photography assignments worlwide, travel and make photographs for several upcoming books, with his wife, Apisatha.

Book Cover

The Elephant Round-up in Surin, was probably the most difficult shoot of the whole book. Although at the time I had no idea that one image that I shot that day would become the cover photograph, I WAS in a wheelchair, just 56 days after I had shattered my ankle, and the odds seemed stacked against me.

I had no idea what kind of pictures I could make from a wheelchair, or how the elephants would react to me, but I had always wanted to see the Surin Elephant Round-up, with it’s 300+ pachyderms playing soccer, re-enacting battles and most of all, dining at the Elephant Banquet. Besides, I knew it had to be in the book, and wouldn’t happen again for a whole year. Plus, it had been on my wife’s shoot calendar for months, so it was almost carved in stone.

We arrived early in the morning and began scouting locations. Fon patiently pushed me down sidewalks and along dirt roads scatterd with large bricks of dung, until we at last arrived backstage at the showgrounds. Luckily, the security guards were very sympathic to me and allowed us in. It was very frustrating for the first hour, and it was hot, very hot. We chased and photographed elephants and their riders as they arrived, but the backgrounds were cluttered and the elephants seemed agitated. They were after all, prepairing for their yearly time in the limelight, and nervous!

As showtime for the dressed rehearsal drew closer, I really started to think that I would not be able to make a reasonably good picture. That’s when the star elephants began strolling in. They were well trained and mannered, and looked confident. Although the show had already started, as the star elephants were changing into their costumes, with the help of the mahouts, they allowed me to make several quick images of them. Now, I had been telling my wife prior to this to get my wheelchair in close and this time she took it to heart. The elephant raised it’s trunk, she quickly pushed me almost underneath it. I squeezed off six shots on the way in and as calmly as I could, asked her to, “PULL ME BACK!” The third one is on the cover of the book.

Just Moments Before the Cover Photo was Taken.

The Elephant Banquet, held on the next day, was somewhat chaotic. The main street was lined with long tables covered with fruit and vegetables. The elephants were gathered at the center of town for a ceremony, then the mahouts rode them down the street and allowed them to gorge on their fruit or vegetable of choice. It was interesting how some would like a certain fruit or vegetable only, and not even pause if there were none of their favorites on the table. Observing that most of them favored corn, I tried to hide some on my lap to coax the most handsome ones, which later proved to be a bad idea. Still, an adventure and a book cover shoot that I’ll never forget.

Working at the Elephant Banquet

During this time, I’ve been working on an art/travel picture book about Thailand.  I’m 70% finished with the shooting part and I’m working on laying it out, captioning and editing images.  No small task, as our travels took us to almost all of the 77 provinces, and I’ve ended up with over 10,000 images.  I slipped about two months ago and broke my ankle in two places, or the book would have been out for the new year.  As it is, I’ve extended the release to the Thai New Year in April.

In the coming days, I’ll post some photos and movies from our travels and update the site as often as I can.

Thanks for visiting!