TEXT & PHOTO: BHUMIBHAT PROMBOOT
(For Thai, press here)
An attempt to piece together fragments of memory through the city’s elements, seen from the perspective of an outsider. A landscape constructed as a stage for leisure, designed to bring joy, provide comfort, and soothe the mind with entertainment for both its residents and visitors. This reflection draws partly on Delirious New York (1978) by Rem Koolhaas, the architect and theorist whose work has profoundly shaped contemporary architecture. In that book, Koolhaas dissected and laid bare the very making of New York City, particularly the island of Manhattan.
The series of photographs seeks to connect certain truths in Delirious New York with America in Passing (1991), the photobook by Henri Cartier-Bresson, which captured the ordinariness and realities of American life during the 1940s to 1960s.
American life in 2025, scattered and fragmented, emerges in spaces and objects devoted to leisure throughout Manhattan. Yet together these fragments continue to render the metropolis as a vast screen, a colossal television screen, endlessly projecting images of life, of dreams, and of death. On repeat, without end.
Dear Rem,
I am very frustrated.
Dear Henri,
I feel so disconnected.
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Bhumibhat Promboot, architect and lecturer, is drawn to buildings, trees, spirits, and animals.