Inside Bangkok’s bamboo fortress, portraits of Red Shirts

Inside their bamboo fortress in central Bangkok, Red Shirt protesters have been sleeping on hard hot streets for 30 days in 40-degree Celsius toxic air trapped by concrete corridors under the Sky Train
between Siam Square and Chidlom stations. The Red Shirts in these photos include a family with a small child from Pattaya, a grandmother from Chiang Mai, a grandmother from Bangkok, young male farmers and laborers from Buriram and Surin, and Bangkok-based street vendors who dawn red attire in order to pass through checkpoints and sell everything from Kanoon fruit to red star caps and slippers depicting Thai PM Abhisit. An illegal state within a state, they have set up black canvases to protect them from the coming monsoon season, and promised to bring in fresh supporters from upcountry. All photos copyright Christopher Johnson, cjinasia@yahoo.com