THE TRIALITY OF LIGHT

'Syntherealm' is a retrospective of Dansoung Sungvoraveshapan's early digital/analogue photography

- STORY: SUWITCHA CHAIYONG

In today's digital age and AI technology, impossible photographs become more common.

However, back in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s when technology was not as advanced, creating artistic photographs was a huge challenge.

Kathmandu Photo Gallery presents the exhibition “Syntherealm”, which displays photographs of that period created by photographer and artist Dansoung Sungvoraveshapan. Akkara Naktamna, curator of the exhibition, explained that “Syntherealm” was inspired by Dansoung’s name, which means “heavenly land”.

“The exhibition is like a land where everything is synthesised and modified in digital format which is a combination between reality and surrealism. While the gallery surveyed and collected work created by contemporary artistic Thai photographers, we came across Dansoung’s work, which is unique since he does not stick to traditional formats,” explained Akkara.

In 1990s, when computer editing programs were first introduced in Thailand, Dansoung applied computer graphic techniques to traditional photographs. His work deserves to be mentioned since he was among the leading photographers to apply computer technology to manipulate photographs to be something beyond normal.

“Syntherealm” showcases photographs from Dansoung’s three previous exhibitions — “Time Delayed”, “Eyes Mind Self” and “Last Homo Sapiens”.

“Time Delayed” was a result of Dansoung’s experiment with a Commodore, a famous home computer at the time.

“It was around 1986 or 1987. Working on a Commodore was an amazing experience because it could manage both graphics and colours even though the images did not look realistic due to limited shades. I also had to use a CCTV camera to digitise images since there was no photo scanner. When the CCTV camera moved, it caused image distortion. The images at that time had a resolution of 640x480, which was considered high, and I was very excited about it,” explained Dansoung.