The Other Side of Beauty: Yellow II
April 2005 in Khao Lak, Thailand

Picture staying in a tropical paradise where you look out your front balcony onto a tropical sea and out your back balcony to see mountains rising toward the sky. In Khao Lak, Thailand, one of the resorts that was scheduled to open on January 1, 2005 had such a view---the Andaman Sea to the west and the mountains of the Khao Lak National Park to the east.

This multimillion dollar resort had this story behind it, as told by one of the local tour guides showing around volunteers new to the tsunami ravaged coast of Thailand: “For this resort the primary financial backer invited friends and family members over for the grand opening as a present. The generosity was the chance to be in paradise for the holidays and to be part of the grand opening gala. The grand opening was slated for New Year’s and six days before it was to officially open the events of December 26, 2004 began to unfold. The force of the wave was tremendous and the sliding glass doors on the seaside view met first with the wave's impact. As the doors were breached the water was channeled and forced through the building easily pushing through and shattering each room’s sliding doors onto the back balcony. The people who were in the hotel became part of the staggering toll of lives lost to the tsunami...the heartbreaking irony was the resort backer was still abroad working on a deal -- finding out the news of the tsunami’s destruction as the media coverage fixated on southeast Asia in the subsequent days.”  

Available as a Matte Print Size: 11" x 14" Limited series of 500 prints Price*: $125 US, excludes shipping