The Weight of a Frame: Shooting Thailand on a 50-Year-Old SLR

I am Frederik, 34 years old, and I recently moved back to Germany after living in Bangkok, Thailand for the last five years. Besides loving photography, I like to go for a run and I love watching movies.

I started taking photos at a very young age. The first real camera I got was when I was around 14. It was a Canon, but I can’t remember the model. It was marketed as a beginner camera.

My real love for photography started when I was living in Bangkok. I began going out and simply enjoyed taking images of the local life. My wife and I also used our holidays to travel to major cities in Asia, and I always planned the trips carefully to make sure we knew where the best spots were for this kind of photography. The good part was that we always ended up in very local areas because we mostly just walked wherever it looked interesting for taking photos. That mix of planning and getting lost shaped the way I still work today.

After a while, I thought it would be amazing to make a living out of this passion, so I signed up for an intense professional photography course in Bali. This was the first time I worked with professional models and had proper shoots, and I was hooked. It was new because, until then, I had only taken candid photos of what I saw in the streets. Directing models was something completely different, but also really fun. I think because of my background, I always try to give my images a candid feeling. I want them to look “posed-unposed.” Effortless, but intentional.