Gabriel Camelin
I’m a French multimedia artist, educator and researcher based in Bangkok.
Across media
I work across photography, moving image and installation. Some projects begin with things I encounter in daily life in Thailand, such as the amulets and spiritual worlds that drew me towards Rem.i.nisce. Others begin as a reason to meet people.
Silent Blessing started that way. Printing the portraits as cyanotypes changed the work: taking the images out of their digital form and making them by hand seemed to turn the people into icons.
My background is in film studies and visual communication. I make music videos, use moving images in installations, and work with objects, prints and projections to give images a physical presence. I also perform live visuals with musicians.
Teaching & Research
Teaching has shaped my practice, sometimes in unexpected ways. I learned cyanotype for an analogue photography class, and it became Silent Blessing. Visual effects followed a similar route: I was asked to teach the subject, learned through teaching it, and later made it part of my work. My courses are also a laboratory for my own learning.
I currently teach at Mahidol University International College and Bangkok University International, across photography, storytelling, digital media and cinematography. My teaching has also included visual effects, music video production, analogue processes and exhibition-making.
My research has explored moving-image creation in relation to grief, assessment in visual arts education, and more recently environmental portraiture as a way of documenting creative communities in Thailand.
Among Makers
Among Makers brings together portraits, conversations and written accounts of encounters with people making creative work in Thailand. I photograph them in places connected to their lives and practice, and we review the images and texts together before publication.