For those of us who have watched Brent Lewin’s career evolve, it came as no surprise to discover he would be recognized as a ‘New and Emerging Photographer to Watch’ in PDN’s 30 for 2010.
The staff of Redux Pictures would like to congratulate Brent for Photo District News’ well-deserved recognition for his hard work in raising awareness to the plight of Thailand’s elephants.
Congratulations to Brent Lewin, photo essay category winner for the World in Focus contest, for his Elephant in the Room series. See more of the work on the Redux Archive here.
Congratulations to Brent Lewin, a Nature Category runner-up in the 2009 American Photo Images of the Year contest for his abstract portraits of Thai street elephants which can be viewed on the Redux Pictures archive here.
Redux Pictures would like to congratulate Brent Lewin for his Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand 1st place prize for his “Urban Jungle” photo essay!
Awarded on 12/3, Brent was pleasantly surprised to receive the honor at the dinner gala held in Bangkok.
Congratulations, Brent!
Brent Lewin photographed and wrote a feature on Mumbai which was published in travel magazine Get Lost.
Brent Lewin’s photo essay “Body Collectors” was featured on Burn Magazine.
Brent Lewin’s photographs of Bangkok’s elephants were featured on The New York Times LENS Blog. See more of Brent’s work on the Redux Pictures archive here.
Brent Lewin’s images and article from his story Body Snatchers were featured in the new issue of Utne Reader.
View all the images from the story on the Redux archive.
Brent Lewin’s Urban Jungle series will be shown at Toronto Image Works Gallery September 10 – October 17.
“After years of unsustainable and exponential growth in the construction industry during 1990s led to an economic meltdown, countless developers went bankrupt and were forced to abandon their projects. 10 years on, all that’s left of the burst bubble are eerie pockets of the abandoned foundations of skyscrapers and suburban homes to be. While the construction boom may have ended with these structures, the day-to-day lives of Thai’s seeking to make ends meet continued on and many of Thailand’s poorest soon found new homes in other people’s forgotten dreams.
The Bangkok suburb of Bang Bua Thong, surrounded by marshland and hidden among tangled masses of overgrown grass and tropical vegetation, is the home of several hundred squatters, who occupy the concrete foundations of two-storey townhouse-style living quarters. In the furthest reaches of the complex, unknown even to many of its inhabitants, live five families with their ten domesticated elephants. As if materializing from a classical tale of days gone by, the elephants live side by side with their handlers, or mahouts. Many of the elephants use the abandoned structures as a jungle gym—they clamber in and out of the many rooms, and some even climb the stairs to the second floor.
The families are rice farmers from a poor province in the North of Thailand. To supplement their income when the rice growing season has ended they relocate to the suburbs of the capital and truck the elephants into town daily, walking them in the street to find people willing to pay to feed the elephants”
-Brent Lewin
The Elephant In The Room from Brent Lewin on Vimeo.
“Elephants, revered symbols of Thailand’s glorified past, have long walked side by side with the monarchy and common farmers alike. The indispensable role of elephants in Thai society has been captured in countless tales and works of art along temple walls. More recently, elephants have been represented as cultural icons and used in the commercial branding of countless products. One would be hard pressed to look in any direction in the capital and not find an elephant motif somewhere. But for all the iconic representations of elephants as symbols of strength, dignity and prosperity, in reality the only elephants seen in Bangkok are those being led by their mahouts, wandering the congested streets begging.”
-Brent Lewin