Mind Sirikachorn is now the go-to Photoshop retouch artist for election posters in Bangkok. She shot to fame thanks to her placard featuring a blurry cell phone picture of the Chiang Mai zoo guy holding a baby panda. The poster got huge media attention and, since then, she’s the one would be-politicos call when they’re making a run for office.
BK: This new poster with Pheu Thai’s Phongsaphat is a masterpiece. Tell us how you manage to get that freaky, glazed over look in his eyes?
Mind: The trick is to start with a really crap picture. Preferably one that has some motion-blur on it. Then you over-sharpen the shit out of it before applying a soft focus filter to finish. Clearly, it really helps if the candidate is a cop in the narcotics department with free access to all the good stuff, too.
BK: He looks borderline insane.
Mind: Thank you. It takes a lot of work to capture someone’s soul like that.
BK: And tell us about the Democrat candidate, Sukhumbhand. He also looks slightly demented, a mad but happy Chinese temple idol.
Mind: The trick with Sukhumbhand is to positively cake him with layer after layer of heavy duty makeup. No amount of Photoshop can produce that same lacquered relic look. So I need to work in close collaboration with the makeup team who do the Channel 3 lakorn to get the right level of thickness.
BK: He looks so fake, it’s amazing.
Mind: Yes. We outdid ourselves. We weren’t quite sure if he was still alive by the end of the photoshoot or if his eyelids were just glued open with mascara.
BK: Will you be doing any of the smaller candidates?
Mind: Suharit can’t afford me, unfortunately. So he may end up looking pretty normal, human and stable. It’s his loss, I could have really done something with all that body hair. But I’m excited to be doing the other old men in the race. I’m pretty sure they’ll look just as scary as Sukhumbhand and Phongsaphat. I treat all my clients equally.
BK: Do you ever get negative reactions? We’ve seen children crying in front of some of the posters. Do you sometimes feel you’ve gone too far?
Mind: I think people have a right to know the kind of psychotic, sick bastards they’re voting for. If a few kids get traumatized in the process, that’s a small price to pay.
More Page 3.