Photographic Edition print by Tony Potts

I was walking the streets of Bangkok when I saw him ahead of me. The saffron robes, the shaved head, the early morning quiet of the city. And then a cigarette. I raised my camera without thinking. There is something so beautifully human about this moment: a man devoted to the purest principles of Buddhist life, taking a quiet drag on a cigarette on a grey city street. No judgement from me. If anything, it made me like him more. The orange against the concrete, the smoke curling into the air, the ancient wrapped in the everyday. Bangkok in one frame.

Location: Bangkok, Thailand, 2006