MEAD NORTON ︎THE PEOPLE’S GAME
There’s a scene painted on a wall in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha where the god Manuman is playing a game with 3 monkeys. The game is called Sepak Takraw, one of Asia’s most oldest and most popular sports. How and where this timeless game began is a mystery. There are references to it as far back as the 1500s. A cross between hackisack & volleyball, this timeless activity is the most popular sport in Thailand. Thais of all walks of life play it everywhere and anywhere. From the rough courts in the slums to the slick pro games in the national stadium.
Sepak Takraw is simple. Anyone and everyone can play it. And they do. All that’s required is a ball, a net and an extraordinary amount of skill and athletic ability.
It is today what is always has been. A game played by gods and by people.
The Series Project, Bangkok. June 2019.
︎ MEAD NORTON
Born in the USA and based in New Zealand, Mead's photography reveals a love of the medium combined with a unique flair and a passion for authenticity in visual narrative.
Mead enjoys the whole process of creating an image from the ground up; carefully designing each element and working technically with lighting and angle to produce his signature no fuss reality in the final product. He has a keen eye for shape, contour and the graphic elements within a composition combined with a familiarity with his subjects and their individual stories.
Considered but never staged, he produces work that is strong, linear and beautifully minimalist. Whether a rolling landscape, a lifestyle moment or an environmental portrait, Mead is able to lend his images the believable immediacy of an experience.
Particularly interested in creating imagery that evokes the feeling of experience, Mead's perspective is never that of a remote observer. We are always "there".