REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE

This page gives information abut the sources of the images on the credit-card style photo cards we have been giving away as a token of our appreciation to Collectors.

The first three cards, sent out to all on our current Greedbag purchaser list at Christmas 2009, were these:



1. A wonderful picture I found on this blog (by way of Google images) which is a fascinating account of a bike ride from China to back to the West, with all kinds of adventures on route. I thoroughly recommend you check it out!

However there is something about this boy and this picture that seems to transcend the normal touristy snaps of Buddhist Novices you see around the place – A kind of strength of resolve to change the world (and maybe in particular Tibet) for the better, no matter what hardships might be involved. I like it so much that I also used the image on the last song of the Threshold HouseBoys Choir show at the Equinox Festival, last year. Hopefully soon to be posted on:
UnkleSleazy.tv

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2. This picture is one I took during a session of photos I made when I first arrived in Thailand, at a very old-fashioned go-go bar that still had “upstairs rooms” that you could use for an hour or so if you did not want to take “your new friend“ back to your smart hotel, for some reason. Normally one might imagine these rooms as the worst kind of horror, since they have probably seen shall we say ”the less attractive side of human nature“ , however in fact their starkness and simplicity, with incongruously cheery sheets, and odd caring detail, somehow make them feel more like a monk’s tiny retreat, or an old lag’s prison cell after years of affectionate occupation – homely and relaxing.

Of course it is this implicit contradiction that interests me.

For what its worth, for the most part, the fleeting encounters in these room were, in my experience, tender occasions for younger (well, over 18) and older, to spend some ”quality time“ together, have a giggle and make each other feel good, in completely harmless ways, that would be impossible in the West for fear of raising (or rather lowering) professional media commentators to the level of a lynch mob in a second.

Unfortunately few bars of this style (catering to customers of either proclivity) still exist, and similar services are now offered by a category of business referred to as ”the Short-Time Hotel“. While more basic and not as bizarre as the Japanese ”Love Hotels“, the services are basically the same, and the range from ”The Beach” tacky and dirty, to palatial “disco diva” Elton style mirrored extravangazas :-)

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3. This is a picture of an Indian Boy called Ram, who apparently did not eat for several years, remaining sitting under a tree, meditating 24/7.

Various enterprising businessmen decided to promote him as a Buddha reincarnation, and for a while he received a great following and media interest. However some doubted the promoters claims, and since the boy said nothing or very little, it was hard to tell. The simplest explanation (fraud) usually being said to be the most likely etc. A short time later he disappeared, and people lost interest.

Whatever the truth of his story, there is no doubt there was something strange about him – Even for India he was not a normal 14 year old. Perhaps more will emerge later.

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Photo-card numbers 4-9 (of the same size as the first three), will be given away free with the Moment to Reflect frame set (for a while anyway). They are pictures of victims of the Tuol Sleng Concentration Camp, run by Pol Pot in Cambodia in the 70s. It’s now a museum.

In some ways the “revolution” of the Khmer Rouge, echoed the Cultural Revolution in China. Everybody (except the ruling elite) were regarded as peasant servants of the state and sent to the fields to grow rice, regardless of whether they were doctors, teachers, engineers, or whatever. Many, many people were killed for objecting, resisting or for even lesser reasons.

I am far from an expert in Cambodian politics so please head to Wikipedia for a more informed view.

Tuol Sleng (which I also featured in my video for Ostia, released with the BFI’s Blu-Ray edition of Pasolini’s extraordinary “Salo“) was formerly a school in Phnom Penh, which was converted by the Pol Pot regime into an interrogation and concentration camp for children and young people, nearly all under 16. There was a prevailing sense of paranoia within the regime which resulted in many innocent children being tortured to reveal names of traitors they were thought to know. Like the McCarthy trials but with prods connected to the 220v wall sockets, sharpened sticks, and only the camp commander’s camera there to witness and record the things he enjoyed.

Sadly, the Khmer Rouge guards and interrogators of Tuol Sleng were often as young as the kids they were electrocuting, waterboarding in their own piss and shit, clubbing to death, etc.

As someone connected to the CIA/MK Ultra program recently said to me – ”If you want, you can turn a 10 year old boy into a brutal killer – in fact into almost anything!“ Apparently in the real-life story behind “The Manchurian Candidate”, the would-be assassins the CIA were training, were all just kids…

If ever there was a place, that demonstrates how the demons called up by such horrendous activity, can remain at the same location for years afterward, casting a strange psychic cloud over it, it is Tuol Sleng.


The vibe is much worse than the German Concentration camps which, maybe just because of time, have weathered kindly.

A year or so ago a friend Mark, who lives here in Bangkok, had the opportunity to interview one of the 4 survivors of the camp (out of the 4 or 5 thousand who suffered and died). He invited me to go with him to Phnom Penh to film the interview (probably because I had the smartest camera, and some little know-how!) so I went to his house in Bangkok to discuss it. We chatted for a few hours about the best way to film, the kindest way to ask probing questions via an interpreter, and stuff like that.

When I got home I passed the room in my gatehouse where my friend X had just set up a little personal Buddhist Shrine. He did not know where I’d just been or what I had been talking about.

Somewhat unusually he invited me to pray with him for a moment, I assumed to celebrate the Shrine’s completion. Out of respect for his feelings as much as anything else, I agreed. Since I still haven’t learned any Pali chants, he suggested I focus on asking for protection from any kind of general danger. We knelt and he began chanting softly, under his breath.

Despite feeling perfectly fine and normal, not dehydrated, not drunk, dizzy or anything, within about 10 seconds, and completely out of the blue, I passed out cold, falling forward into a handful of burning incense sticks on the shrine.

When I came to, a few minutes later, he already all had all the houseboys and staff, assembled, all dressed in white, praying for my safety.

The first thing he said to me was ”Are you planning a trip I don’t know about?”

I said “Yes, why?”

He said “The Angels tell me you cannot go. It’s a very bad place. You could easily die…”

Tears started running down my face (as usual ,-) but now stinging for some reason. I told him about the proposed trip to Cambodia, and Tuol Sleng. He said nothing but held up a mirror, so I could see myself.

On my face were burn marks from the incense I had tipped on to, exactly matching the wounds on the long-dead kid’s face, in the photo in my pocket…

When stuff like that happens in Thailand, trust me, Angels or otherwise, you Do As You’re Fucking Told.

My friend found another cameraman.

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My intention is to continue to send out cards for free from time to time to all the customers of my stores.

The Moment Frame Set will continue to be available with, from time to time, different free images, until demand ceases.

When I change the free cards accompanying the Moment Set… (for example, I am just now working on a series of images of strange flowers – name check and eternal love, credit and merit to genius, Robert Mapplethorpe), the existing purchasers of the Moment Set, will be able to keep their collection complete, buy buying the new card images at virtually cost price. The cards that come free with the set will not be available separately to anyone who hasn’t already bought the Moment set from the store.

In bulk, the cards work out at about a pound each, so I’m afraid I cannot afford give away 20 cards to a thousand people plus each year. Even 6 free cards a year to everyone is a substantial investment into your future, as ebay entrepreneurs – sorry – your future as Collectors of Special Things! :-)

Although a stack of these cards tied up with string in an old shoe box would be a nice thing for your grandchildren (or maybe Special Branch) to find in the attic, they really look better on display in the Moment Set frame. The Sacred-Profane store has other cheaper items in preparation, but right now the Moment Set is the most affordable item in the store, and buying it is the only way you will be able to maintain a complete collection of the cards.

Come on kids, want to get emotionally high during morning break?

Your first 3 hits were a free Christmas present from Unkle Sleazy!

:-)