ADULT Chapbook (A Book for Adults)
A Pride Month Showcase by Kornkrit Jianpinidnan

🗓 Exhibition Period: 1 June – 30 June 2025
🕚 Open daily, 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
📍 HOP CLUB Photobook Library, MMAD 2nd Floor, Man Man Srinakarin

ADULT Chapbook reflects on the aesthetics, desires, and class dynamics embedded in the world of homoerotic imagery, particularly as it appeared in male-targeted magazines during their golden age. The covers often featured handsome men captured by editorial photographers—many of whom typically worked in the female nude genre. Most publishers began as producers of men's magazines showcasing female nudity, but over time, the aesthetics evolved: straight men, gay men, and kathoeys (transgender individuals) each took on roles in photography, grooming, styling, and visual direction.

The resulting images—homoerotic and performative—are reminiscent of theatrical scenes, intimate snapshots, and travel photography. They were shot in bedrooms, studios, and outdoor locations, with subjects portrayed as travelers, dreamers, free spirits, craftsmen, farmers, elites, businessmen, athletes, or tribal figures. In reality, these models were largely working-class or lower-middle-class individuals, many of whom were newly arrived or working in urban areas, navigating upward social mobility.

What is visible and tangible in these works is inseparable from power—particularly the economics of representation. These images are also products of culturally constructed beauty standards. In the world they represent, quality of life becomes as important as the right to marriage.

ADULT Chapbook is a fragmented, non-linear body of work—emerging sporadically, like a rainbow. It is driven by artistic research and archival exploration, seeking visual material to create new photographic pieces rooted in social reflection.

The project arises from the artist's deep contemplation of societal phenomena, both from the golden age of print magazines and today’s context, where such publications—once key platforms for photographic expression—have nearly disappeared from Thailand. This work focuses on photographs and textual content drawn from alternative magazines, reinterpreted through a contemporary lens, embracing technical imperfections and the complexities of production. It features both archival material and new works inspired by old images, forming a dialogue across time, aesthetics, and desire.