A Neon Night at Bangkok’s Yaowarat Road

By Thomas Milton

Preface

Every major capital city in the world has a Chinatown, but only a few can be compared with Bangkok’s Chinatown in terms of history, size, culture, and a few contain a famous road such as the Yaowarat Road, the pulsing artery that runs through Chinatown.

At night Yaowarat Road transform into a colourful chaotic spot full of sounds, smells, people, traffic, buses, tuk tuk, vendors, tourist, shops, vice, street food, including a Michelin start street food stall, massage parlours, bars, and the vintage neon advertising billboards, all in one main road, spilling the nice chaos across all the side streets and dark back alleys, resulting in one of the best spot for night photography spot in Bangkok.

Yaowarat Road Night Photography

It was a challenge to shot in Yaowarat road due to several factors, I used a 50mm Sony GMaster f/1.4 lens, this is my favourite lens for night photography, however in such a confined space it was a nice challenge to capture the chaotic essence of this road, during a vegetarian food festival that was happening during the week, plus all the other factors mentioned in the preface section.

However, shooting in 50mm created a certain intimate factor with the characters, locations, with the ever present neon signs, street vendors, tuktuk’s, people, the 50mm aesthetics helped to create this dark but colourful style of this photography series

There is never a dull moment in a night stroll at the hyper busy Yaowarat road, or exploring the dark back alleys in the area. For the street photographer and night photographer, this must be one of best spots of continuous photography opportunities, just follow the flow, stop, look up, smell the food, enter the back alleys, have a break, have a drink, look up again, and do it again as this road is in a constant photosynthesis.