Stand-alone movie theatres have always been dear to me. In the cradle of my memory they are doorways into other worlds. They comprise nothing short of the most exciting part my childhood experience of the city, and still captivate me anywhere I find them.
My discovery of stand-alone movie theatres in Thailand was made just as they stood at the end of their life cycle. For the average Thai, the remaining stand-alone cinema houses have already become associated with decay, if they are known about at all.
In 2008, I made the decision to photograph as many of them in Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia as I possibly could. The outcome has been the Southeast Asia Movie Theatre Project – a part documentary, part travelogue voyage into a faded world.
