Assignment 1: Initial thoughts.

What does 2 sides to the same story mean? My immediate thoughts is – opposites e.g. good / bad or Dark side / lightside. However, it could involve:

recreating an event (or parts of) from different points of view
image manipulations to change perception e.g. “airbrushing” out the ugly
the use of symbolism
shooting a real event in 2 different ways

I live and work in Pattaya, Thailand which is a city of many sides and faces – not all of them very nice, in fact, I received many knowing looks when I said of was moving here. I am therefore drawn to representing this somehow. Ideas which would fit would be

The dark and the light – Pattaya by night and day
Saints & Sinners – the world of sex tourism
Empty city – inspired by Sarah Pickering’s Public order; scenes from the city with people removed at different times of the day.
Behind the scenes – show the public and private sides of tourist activities e.g. scuba diving
Above and below the water
Framing and context – use different framing of a single image to convey different meanings/viewpoints
Driver vs Pedestrian – not a PlayStation game but how a route is different in a car than by foot
Social inequalities – Beggars vs Luxury goods etc
Expat vs Tourist vis local

Of these ideas over the last few days I have discounted a few for practicality, e.g

I am still new here in Pattaya so projects that will require 3^rd party involvement would be difficult.
Empty city – my tripod is still in Hong Kong (3hrs flight away) along with my ND1000…
2 sides of an event – not sure when a suitable event is available and is time restricted making reshoots impossible
Above and below water – although Scuba is my day job it now the lowest tides and poorest visibly of the year. All the underwater shots would be pea soup!!!

I have mind mapped some ideas of tourist vs local sides of Pattaya on a Starbucks napkin – schoolboy error note book left at home.

The most obvious idea is the difference between day to day life and the cities reputation as the world largest sex tourism destination or indeed an extrapolation of this in the 2 sides to the story of the girls working in this industry. However, these are projects that would require a high level of sensitivity and planning for access and I think are beyond the scope of od assignment 1.