Background information
"In Thailand, prostitution is estimated to generate approximately $25 billion annually and 10% of the gross domestic product (Germany: 0.38%)*. Prostitution is illegal in Thailand. Part of the sex industry in Thailand explicitly targets customers from the USA, Great Britain and Germany. The relevant bars in Bangkok are located on Patpong, Nana Tai and Cowboy streets. Patpong 1, the parallel Patpong 2 and Cowboy are each about 200 meters long.
*Reichel, Richard and Topper, Karin (2003), "Prostitution: the unrecognized economic factor," in Enlightenment and Critique. Zeitschrift für freies Denken und humanistische Philosophie, ed. by the Society for Critical Philosophy, Nuremberg, 10th ed., 2/2003.
Contents
The photographs in Elisabeth NEUDÖRFL's long out-of-print spiral-bound book of photographs 'Super Pussy Bangkok' are taken from three streets in Bangkok where prostitution for Western sex tourists takes place. They are taken in daylight and show unsightly concrete buildings, switched off neon signs, tangles of cables, air conditioners - all without people. The German photographer takes a sober look at them, without judging, and thus shows the living conditions in the so-called 'entertainment business'.""Published in an edition of only 300 copies, the artist's book 'Super Pussy Bangkok' comprises 33 black-and-white photographs (silver gelatin on baryta paper) taken by Elisabeth NEUDÖRFL in the three streets of Bangkok where prostitution for tourists is located. The pictures were all taken during the day. They show ramshackle concrete houses, unlit neon signs, tangles of cables, air-conditioning units, and are devoid of people. With a completely sober eye that doesn't judge, she shows the living conditions of the animation industry."
Book Review
"Elisabeth NEUDÖRFL further explores the photographic possibilities within documentary photography with the photo series 'Super Pussy Bangkok'. With pictorial means she examines a visible section of real conditions that are linked to political and economic interests (at least). Through the precision of her photographs and the rejection of exotic notions of Thailand, she achieves an impressive representation. Because the photographs leave blank spaces and deny insights, they clarify a questionable social situation that in any case defies any concrete depiction." (© Bettina Lockemann, 09|2007)