The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

Ever changing.  Timeless.

Squid fishermen return from a night's netting.

April 13, 2011, Hua Hin, Thailand. First light over the Gulf of Siam.

The sun approaches the horizon.

The sun rising over the Gulf of Siam.

The first morning rays reflect off the sea.

A beautiful day ahead.

Good Morning Hua Hin!

The day has begun.

No two sunrises are the same.  This was the following day.

Yet another morning's sunrise.

An ordinary evening on the streets of Hua Hin. The food hawkers are out with their carts.

Some food carts are mobile -- they move about the town all night.

Some carts seem to move about and never stop.  Car batteries and lamps illuminate the product.

Some hawkers seem to own a corner.  Here dried, pressed squid strips arrayed on Hua Hin Main Street.

Our favorite ginger soup and soy milk sweet dessert cart seems to have found a permanent home on a side street.  We are very glad to have found it again!

Most carts seem to come out in early evening and set up "food courts" in the same location every night.

There is a stark beauty about the actuality of these night hawker markets.

The lighting seems to highlight the human endeavour to stay alive, as well as to eat.

The carts are wheeled in and tables and stools are brought out for the customers.

Late at night, this man seemed so lonely making his hot noodle soup.

Late night, Hua Hin back streets.

Some night hawkers walk the streets trying to sell their "hill tribe" mementos to the diminishing number of tourists . . .

Tailor shops and tourist tuk-tuks sit empty, their touts listless.

At some point every night, a decision is made to beak camp and head home through the night streets of Hua Hin.

The famous Thai tolerence allows the cheap and the tawdry in.

A hard way to make a living.  A hard way to live.

My father sorted out piles of old family photographs before he died. Going through these old folders I found  photos of some family members I had never seen before.

This is my great-great-grandfather, Owen E. Harper I and my great-great-grandmother Roselya Harper.  The note on the back asked "Homer?" referring to my grandfather Homer Harper III, the rest I do not know . .  there was no mention on the back.  This photo is from around 1900-1910 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

This is my great-great grandmother Roselya Harper, circa 1900-1910, St. Louise, Missouri, USA. This photo, and the one above, are the only photos I have ever seen of her.

My father was in the U.S. Army stationed in Berlin, Germany after the war.  The caption on the back of this photo said, "Berlin before The Blockade (Amy in the middle)," That is my father, Owen E. Harper II, on the left.

I came along on 1950.  Here I am at 2 1/2 years old in Monterey, California, USA.

We moved to Frankfurt, Germany in 1953 and lived in a very big house of a former Nazi.  My father "saved" these two good Italian people (seen with my brother Allan and I), Johnny and Lydia Bossi, from the destitution of post war Germany. They became very successful later in life.

We travelled all over Europe between 1953 and 1956 in our 1953 Studebaker.  Here we are at Lago Maggeore in the Italian Lake Country in 1955. (L to R: me,my brothers Dennis and Allen).

Those were the days: me at 10 in 1960 in Calimesa, California. I scanned the last 50 old photos (of about 350) today, but will not put them all on line. Go to my Old Family Photos page for more of these.

I took this photo with my iPhone4 the other night while walking to our car after a night on the town with my wonderful wife.  Old Bangkok can still be found in the back alleys of the Silom Road area . . . if you are looking.

Dr. Jeff, Where do you live? What's it like there?

This is Chaengwattana Road in the northern suburbs of Bangkok.  It is a fast growing area with even faster growing traffic.  When I moved out here 14 years ago you could shoot a canon ball down Chaengwattana and not hit anybody.  Drive west about three miles from here and you come to my house. These two photos were taken from the same spot, facing 180 degrees apart.

The Thai Government has relocated most of the bureaucracy from the beautiful Thai style old buildings downtown to bright and architecturally plain modern buildings out in my part of town.  This has caused the traffic. You are looking east here. But I forgot to say . . . that I LOVE Bangkok!