We hard grafting souls at Bangkok Nites were recently invited to shoot at Mandarin gogo bar. Mandarin is on the right as you enter Nana Plaza, up the escalator and straight on. They’re refurbishing the upper floor and have grand plans for the wave of gogo-starved tourists due to arrive before Xmas.
It’s good to photograph in different places and for the bars, it’s good to use different photographers sometimes: we get content and they get promotional material. Every photographer has a different vision, some good, some bad, some arty and some workman-like.
Some like to experiment and some find a style and stick blindly to it. Jack Nites thought I was ready for my first proper shoot Jack and I have a very different take on photography, but he’s the bar expert – I’m a gogo shoot neophyte: a Canon-wielding Skywalker to his Sony-equipped Obi-Wan. Nevertheless, I was “mad for it”, as they say down our way.
The new male mamassan (man-assan? (c) Ron Mak) Charlie had organised half a dozen girls to come in early, and as Jack and I set up our gear I managed to put my just-above-taxi-Thai to good use, chatting a little with the girls and making daft jokes, hopefully putting us both at ease, or more likely distracting myself – it wasn’t these girls’ first rodeo, but I was about to jump on a big bull.
Let me tell you, shooting in a gogo bar is HARD!! They’re low-ceilinged, full of mirrors and other shiny surfaces, and with multi coloured lights, all conspiring to make it damned hard to find a good angle to shoot at. I ended up with myself in some of my shots and, believe me, no-one is paying to see that. The girls were great and very patient as I hesitantly moved them around. Jack just jumped in like it was second nature – practice makes perfect.
We came away with a number of good shots and a powerful thirst which, since Nana Plaza was coming to life when we left, we somehow managed to slake. Come slake your thirst for hot Thai girls and give Mandarin a try: see if we did the girls justice. Big thanks to the staff and management at Mandarin.
Ron Mak
