Life In Klong Toei

• Prize
• Photographer
  Ed Sirivallop, Thailand

These are glimpses of life in the Klong Toei slums of Bangkok.
Klong Toei has a history dating back to the 9th century and
served as a major port to cities upstream from the Chao Phraya
river. Once a bustling center of commerce, the area was later
replaced by bigger ports in the east thus converting the
neighborhood into the slums we see today. Although poor and
drug ridden, this area houses people that are the best and worst
of what the city has to offer.
In our lifetime these slums will be replaced by the homogeneity
of condominiums, housing projects and shopping malls - some
call it progress, while I see decades of precious history being
wiped away.
The purpose of this series is to capture the raw power and
elegance amidst all of the chaos in hopes of reminding future
generations of what it meant to be an individual and to be free.