In the eye of the storm [banality of evil, human depravity]

The picture taken by Neal Ulevich outside Thammasat University in Bangkok on Oct 6, 1976. Photo: AP / NEAL ULEVICH

In the eye of the storm

Exactly four decades after his iconic photograph of the Oct 6, 1976, Thammasat massacre, Neal Ulevich reflects on the circumstances of history captured through the lens

Bangkok Post | 30 September 2016

The photograph is brutal because the reality is brutal.

As memories fade and truth remains clouded, a particular photo has grown in implication, in reflection and in sheer horror. There's a lot of photographs and news footage from the morning of Oct 6, 1976, when the police and right-wing militia laid siege and attacked students at Thammasat University, killing and brutalising scores in one of the worst bloodsheds in Thailand's modern history. But it's the one image taken by AP photographer Neal Ulevich that encapsulates the senseless brutality, and the madness, of that morning 40 years ago: a mutilated corpse dangling from a tree in Sanam Luang as a man is about to bash the lifeless body with a folding chair. The photograph, even more chilling to some, also shows a boy standing among the onlookers laughing.

The importance of Ulevich's picture as a historical record is immense, becoming even more so over the decades as society has gone through other clashes of ideologies, leaving more dead bodies on the street. Today the "chair" photograph is invariably used to exemplify the worst outcome of a conflict spiralling out of control after nationalistic propaganda plants fear and hatred of political enemies. (In 1976 it was the communists.) The eerie power of the picture has also evolved over the past 40 years: it was used as an album cover of an American rock band (Ulevich didn't realise it until he saw it); it inspired several Thai theatre productions and movies; and has been used in countless satirical internet memes. The word kao-ee, or "chair" -- referring to the chair in the photo -- has also acquired a jokey, colloquial connotation in certain circles in Thailand, meaning a threat to those who have anti-establishment thoughts.

Ulevich, now 70, won a Pulitzer Prize for the photographs he took. After stints in Bangkok, Beijing and Tokyo, he moved back to the US in 1990. For one of our articles commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Oct 6 atrocity, we contacted him through email -- which he preferred to Skype -- and asked him about the events of that day. Here's an edited version of the conversation.

When did you arrive at Thammasat on Oct 6? Things had been tense, especially on Oct 5. In the days leading up to Oct 6, did you feel at any point that things could turn violent?

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