By the River of Kings (SUPER LABO)

"The Chao Phraya River is the lifeblood of Thailand. It is born as the Ping and Nan rivers become one. From there its waters flow south to Bangkok. These pictures are a recording of what I saw and the people I met along The River of Kings in Bangkok."-Sobol. "The resulting images use the ... waterway as a prism through which we view life in the city. [H]is photographs largely skim across the surface of the streets, catching dark glimpses of the everyday hustle taking place along the interconnected canals and spillways. [H]e's mostly captured the down and dirty pulse of what's taking place out in the open, finding a sweaty brew of simmering menace and gentle tenderness amid the shadows.... In Bangkok, Sobol seems more of a detached wandering observer, digging his fingers into the fluid grittiness of the public drama. The shadowy darkness and soft blurs of his style give this catalog of impressions a grim undercurrent, even when a flash ... surfaces from the murky bottomlands. If there is any consistent pattern to Sobol's images of Bangkok, it is a recurring interest in the textures of the life in the city.... Like a rough brush on the sleeve, his images give us a tactile experience in addition to a visual one, and those touches add to the sensual richness he is documenting. ... [The book] offers a visceral experience that seems to extend from its edges. Sobol's images are crowdingly immersive, in some cases to the point of claustrophobia. While there are plenty of shocks to jolt us in these dark settings, it is Sobol's ability to combine his provocations with a more subtle brand of human engagement that gives the work a more rounded and three-dimensional perspective."-- Loring Knoblauch. In English. 1 v. (unpaged) : chiefly ill., ports. ; 29 cm.