This is a shoot capturing the energy and work at Silk Muay Thai in Pattaya. I'm starting to look at photographing Muay Thai gyms in Pattaya, studying the transformations of the sport and the art, and this was this was my first choice. The gym is the passion project of Daniel (second photo in) who is very long time passion student and fighter in Thailand, who spent a lot of years in the respected Sor. Klinmee kaimuay gym. He's still superactive in the sport, fighting on ONE Lumpinee just a short time ago. He trains hard and puts everything into the gym, you can feel it. It reflects his enthusiasm for the sport and for Life.
The gym is a beautiful composite of very experienced Thai krus, like Kru Gai (immediately below), who honestly is one of the best pad men I've seen in Thailand, long term Western fighters and students, a few young Thai fighters and other serious students as well. It's a kind of cosmopolitan, living Muay Thai space. One of the things that you'll discover if you come to real family kaimuay is that play is a very important part of work. The work is serious, but there is a kind of joy, an ease, a togetherness that binds everyone together. I include a number of shots of the kids who were playing on the climbing rope throughout because it just seemed to reflect the overall bonds of the gym itself. This connection between work and play (sanook) is a very important dimension of Muay Thai in Thailand, key to one of its most cherished fight qualities, fighting with Ning (ease). You want to work and fight hard, but be at ease. A hybrid space, it has a lot of that communal feeling that you find in kaimuay, and the serious rope climbing play was just all part of everyone enjoying themselves, digging in, to very arduous pad work. It felt more like an extended family than a business, and that's a very Thai Muay Thai thing.
The pad men are top. Super engaged. Artful. Playful. Tough.
It's a huge, spacious gym, where everyone seems to have a place to do their thing, with focus. Everything moves like clockwork with a nice blend of the new and the long term. There is a sense of togetherness throughout. Their fighters fight on stadium shows. Lots of threads of Muay Thai culture coming together in this braid.
You can find them on Google Maps here. It's right on a reservoir lake that is one of the more quiet, picturesque locations in Pattaya, well away from other more touristed parts.
This is also a photographic project, exploring ways in which to capture what a Muay Thai gym feels like, what it is, what its doing besides just the facts of it. A gym is filled with personalities, with energies, with directive power. Every gym has a culture, a spirit.
