BILLY PLUMMER ︎ THE GHOSTS OF MOTOR CITY

Home to various ethnic Chinese communities since soon after the foundation of Bangkok, Talat Noi District is a historic neighbourhood on the outskirts of Chinatown. Originally an area where old school blacksmiths, metalworkers & tool steel producers plied their trade, it evolved after World War 2, becoming more mechanical. It’s now a complex network of alleys full of auto chop shops and parts stores known as Motor City. At night it’s a place where oil and grease scents from heaped used car parts mingle with those of thai cooking, incense and cat piss.

In the early hours it’s a ghost town and you can feel the spirits of dead cars sleeping under the eerie yellow ochre of Mercury vapor street lamps.

Dec. 2018.