Images of a night person: Jerry Burchard at the Bhirasri

The Bangkok Post Sunday June 22 1986

It is always a good maxim to take ‘official’ culture with a pinch of salt, to remove oneself from the generality that “what most people like most of the time” is in fact a country’s culture. Very often it is some fabrication of a ruling class, or an offshoot of tourism, or the mere vanity of an era.

In this respect, Jerry Burchard’s vision is refreshingly off-beat. In his Morocco there are no camels with squinty-eyedriders. His California is devoid of sun. His Thailand avoids the commonplace vapidity of smiles and folklore. His feel is for long exposures and for night.

Jerry has been living in Thailand off and on since 1980. “I’ve never met a place I didn’t like – all the people, the thrills, the events. The feel of a place.”

He still maintains his contacts with California, where he teaches half the year at the San Francisco Art Institute. Hardly a year goes by without seeing some of his pictures in major group shows in America. This present collection at the Bhirasri is his fifth to date.

He was born in New York. His grandfather and father both worked at Kodak, and he continued the tradition for a number of years before deciding to go professional.

“At the age of 12 I had a smock, beret and an easel. I sold my first painting to my aunt. At first I wanted to be an artist, then a photographer. It was jazz in the ‘50s which inspired me. All those musicians – I just wanted to photograph them – Chris Connor, Sarah Vaughan.”

Both jazz and photography are art forms spawned in the 20th century. Both have had a hard time asserting themselves in their own right. But Jerry sees the argument as stale.

“Creative people are artists no matter what they happen to be using. There are more photographers now than novelists.”

He likes California. Surprisingly, it’s nature which springs to his mind.

“It’s still wild and undiscovered. Signs of man – barns and farms – are falling down. In the East it’s controlled. But in California anyone can get into the country – physically. Walk a little while and there you are.”

And Thailand has overwhelmed him. “It’s the most wonderful place on earth I’ve ever seen.”

Jerry confesses that he’s a night person. All the noise and the people are cleared away so that the creative mind can think like a king. He goes abroad with his camera, recording his self-discoveries.

“My camera is my friend. We go for walks together, sometimes late at night. Sometimes we meet people or landscapes and we make love to them. Sometimes the camera gets more than I do. Sometimes the other way. In any case, the camera, a wizened 1957 SP Nikon, sees what I don’t, what I can’t, what I’d like to. That’s why we’re friends.”

Jerry Burchard’s jazzy, nocturnal pictures are on show at the Bhirasri Institute of Modern Art until June 29th. Don’t miss them.