Interpreting Type Through Light

Abstraction as a Way to Understand a City

Bangkok in Texture and Form

Yaowarat emerges through the abstract gestures of its street typography. In these photographs, letters dissolve into shape and color, and language becomes something to feel with the eye rather than read. Deprived of instant comprehension, we perceive typography as pure form: the tension between intact and fragmented strokes, the interplay of positive and negative space, and the unexpected collisions of weathered materials with gleaming glass. In one frame, a smear of red and shards of text streak across a car window, masking the driver; in another, a polished steel panel fractures a signboard into a kaleidoscopic mosaic.

These abstractions become my guide into a city whose script remains unfamiliar, revealing its material life. By reducing unknown characters to shape and hue, these images turn Bangkok’s Chinatown’s signage into an archive of textures. Everyday signs become sculptural studies that capture the city’s restless energy. Through these photographs, Yaowarat unveils a visual language forged in texture and light.

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