Festival
Xishuangbanna 2012
Suthep Kritsanavarin
A dare fisherman cross the Khon Phapheng falls with sling that he and his friend built to fishing in Don Phai during raining season. Any fatal error could be his next life. As no one could swim against this most powerful fall in the world. The Khong falls is two time strong than Niagara. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
Fishermen havest fish in Li Kok Ma. The Li Kok Ma will construct before the monsoon coming, it will take at least two weeks for one. Fishermen use the large amount of wood and bamboo for construct. The Li Kok Ma and other similar will place into the river holding by the number of rocks that will put on two fenches on the left and right side of Li Kok Ma to keep them from the strong flow of river in raining season. The Floor is made by bamboo. It's wide on it mount and will sink underwater while at the front end will lift up. This smart fishing method will most benefit in raining season. However, the strong flow of Mekong may wipe out the trap only few day of harvesting. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
© Suthep Kritsanavarin
Lao young men in Si Phan Don have a contest by standing in the water by head. Who's the longest time will be the winner and get all fish that others catch today. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
A fisherman follow a rope to cross Li Phi fall, a channel of Mekong River in the South of Laos during fishing season in the early monsoon season in July. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
A fisherman throw a catfish to his Li Kok Ma during fish migrating season in July. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
Samnieng Kambai, at 42. This afternoon he bring his kids to take a shower and teach them swimming. He hope that they will follow him to fishing in Khong falls. He followed his father step to be a fisherman in Khon Phapheng fall same with his younger bother. As Khon Phapheng is one of the most powerful fall in the world, he have to risk his life to get a small number of fish. His former wife pass away four years ago and left seven children to him. Now he's married again this year and have two kids to take care. He went to work in Thailand for seven years in the mid 90'. He claimed that working here as fisherman could earn the same money as work in Thailand. Most young people go to Thailand for play rather than work. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
Fishermen visit their Li in Sahong to clean and repair during monsoon. The water level has up and down unusual during last few years. It cause fish migration unexpected. This picture was taken a few days before the strong current of Mekong wipe all Li in Sahong channel. Today making a Li is more than a traditional method as fishermen use nail instead of rotten and cement to hold the Li in place. However, if the harvesting is under expect they could lost in dept. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
South of Don Khong the Mekong River features a 14km stretch of powerful rapids with several sets of cascades and conyons. This waterfall called Khon Fang which is the border with Cambodia. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
Kantara Khamputhorn, a young Lao fisherman in 4000 Islands hold fish in the mount while cross the rapid of Li Phi Fall with a single rope. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
This Giant Catfish was caught by a Li (a kind of giant fishing trap) in Sahong channel. When villagers in Sadam village and nearby islands know that the giant fish was caught, they come to see and play with fish. At first fishermen try to sell this fish which weight around 150 kgs to middle merchant. However, as merchant offer very low price and the elder belieave that Giant Catfish is "The fish of City spirit". Who sell them will be unlucky forever. Because of serious injured when fall from strong rapid to the Li and treatened by people who come to touch it. At the end, the fish was died on the second day and the owners decided to slaughter inside the village. The last three years, Giant Catfishes were caught by fishermen in Sahong channel every fishing season. As Lao fishermen known that Giant Catfish is an endangered species and preserve by the law, they didn’t sell them in the market. They distributed the meat between villagers. The Giant Mekong Catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) is probably the largest freshwater fish in the world. It is endemic to the Lao, Thailand, China and Cambodia stretch of the Mekong river, where it is in danger of extinction due to overfishing as well as the decrease of water quality due to developement and upstream damming. On November 18, 2003, release of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) updated 2003 Red List of Threatened Species shows that the flagship species of the storied river in Southeast Asia is classified as Critically Endangered, its numbers further reduced from its classification as Endangered in the previous IUCN Red List. The Lao Government has long considered the channel to be of critical importance to migratory fish. At various times in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s the Lao Government specifically banned fishing in Hoo Sahong because of its well-known function as a pathway for migratory fish. Villagers living upstream from Hoo Sahong often point out that if fish could not get up that channel © Suthep Kritsanavarin
© Suthep Kritsanavarin
A fisherman harvest fish in Li Kok Ma. The Li Kok Ma will construct before the monsoon coming, it will take at least two weeks for one. Fishermen use the large amount of wood and bamboo for construct. The Li Kok Ma and other similar will place into the river holding by the number of rocks that will put on two fenches on the left and right side of Li Kok Ma to keep them from the strong flow of river in raining season. The Floor is made by bamboo. It's wide on it mount and will sink underwater while at the front end will lift up. This smart fishing method will most benefit in raining season. However, the strong flow of Mekong may wipe out the trap only few day of harvesting. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
Laos fisherman in a village of southern Laos show catfishs that he net from the fishing trap like fence. The river fence can built as long as 50 meters. At end of trap there are open door to let the fish fall to "Lop" a hugh fishing basket. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
Siamese mud carp try to jump pass the rapid of Khong fall during migrating season in January. The Mekong River basin supports one of the most diverse fish faunas in the world. As of March 1999, 192 fish species had been identified from Khong District. Many species seasonally migrate long distances up the Mekong River from as far away as the Great Lake in Cambodia and the South China Sea in Vietnam. Locals benefit from fishing and irrigation for farm use. Here, communities tend to be self-sufficient, growing most of their own rice, sugar cane, coconut, and vegetables, harvesting fish from the river and weaving textiles as need. Once have a word said "If people of Si Phan Don want to eat fish, they just make fire and people the pot, fish will jump to the pot." Up until the 1950s and early 1960s fisheries practices in Khong were largely traditional. Fishing was conducted almost entirely for subsistence purposes, with the exception of a small amount of barter trade. However, as the blooming of economic and development, they face with uncertain future. Today fishing is no more for domestic consumtion, most of Mekong fish export to Thailand due to better price. Too much fishing and illegal fishing in Laos and Combodia, also the dams, navigation projects, and habitat destruction also threaten the numbers of fish. The Mekong capture fishery is one of the largest in the world with 1.5 million tons caught annually, 16 percent of the world total according to recent studies by the Mekong River Commission. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
A dare fisherman cross the Khon Phapheng falls with sling that he and his friend built to fishing in Don Phai during raining season. Any fatal error could be his next life. As no one could swim against this most powerful fall in the world. The Khong falls is two time strong than Niagara. © Suthep Kritsanavarin
Suthep Kritsanavarin, Thailand,
- First prize of the Xishuangbanna's festival for a foreign photographer
Siphandon Mekong Fishing Under Threats
"The Mekong, the “Mother of Rivers” is a vast ecosystem stemming from the source river towards tributaries, streams, swamps, flood plains, and deltas. Much of this bionetwork functions as rearing and spawning areas or migration corridors between these critical zones. Among the world’s most diverse fisheries systems, the Mekong is home to more than one thousand species of freshwater fish.
Local communities in the river basin, particularly those downriver, rely on fish as their major source of protein. Yet Mekong fisheries are at risk of depletion due to rapid industrialization and an expanding human population. Proposed mega infrastructure projects such as hydroelectric dams may alter annual cycles of flooding and fish migration in the river and its tributaries.
Swimming north through a stretch of the Mekong is the giant catfish, the world’s largest indigenous freshwater fish weighing up to 300 kilos. This remarkable species migrates north from the Tonle Sap in Cambodia to the Siphandon or Four Thousand Islands in southern Laos and onwards to Thailand. The Irrawaddy Dolphin, flagged as an endangered species on IUCN red list also travel these majestic waters.
My documentary is focused on the Mekong’s unique wildlife and human inhabitants; the endangered species thrashing their way up and down stream and the people who risk their lives in a daily struggle to net their catch.
During the three years I’ve been photographing life along the lower Mekong region, I’ve observed how unchecked development and the lack of conservation threatens small fishermen’s livelihood and traditional ways of life. The project is guided both by academic research as well as direct experience with the villagers of Siphandon and the lower Mekong basin in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. Documentary projects demand dedication in order to approach the subject with any depth. I’ve used every opportunity to make frequent trips to the basin, documenting the cycles of life and migration that change with the seasons."
Suthep Kritsanavarin is one of Thailand’s leading photojournalists. His award-winning work has been published internationally in: the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, National Geographic Thailand, Geographical, Aera and Japan Times. Suthep has covered environmental, social and humanitarian issues in Southeast Asia for nearly two decades.
Suthep’s work is based on his firm belief that a photojournalist must act as a conscientious observer of society and culture.
In 2008 Suthep received the Days Japan International Photojournalism Award and was selected for the Best of Photojournalism award from the US-based National Press Photographers Association. His Mekong photo documentary was awarded a grant by the Blue Earth Alliance. After the 2004 Asian Tsunami, Suthep co-founded and worked as the Photo Director of InSIGHT Out! Photography Project. The project teaches children to document their lives through photography in tsunami-affected areas in Banda Aceh, Indonesia and Phang Nga Thailand. He is only the Asian Tutor for young Asian Photographers at the Angkor Photography Festival.
Suthep has exhibited his documentary photography in Thailand, Cambodia, China, Japan, Germany and France including; Siphadon Mekong Fishing Under Threat, Kuay and Elephants: Struggling for Survival, Life in Xinjiang, China and Hunters and Monk in Thailand.
Floris de Bonneville
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