AESTHETICS OF THE MOMENT: THE CONSTRUCTION OF TEMPORAL MEANING THROUGH THAI RURAL LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE SERIES “ONE MOMENT FOR FUTURE”
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Abstract
This article examines how “time” is constructed through the aesthetics of rural landscape photography in the series One Moment for Future, exhibited at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre in 2026. The analysis focuses on a key photograph depicting a boy resting on a white rock amid a wind turbine field in Chaiyaphum, with two additional images serving as contextual support. The study asks how “the moment” in such imagery constructs meanings of past, present, and future, and what aesthetic values emerge from this process. It adopts an interdisciplinary framework combining Cartier-Bresson’s concept of the Decisive Moment, Barthes’ notions of punctum and studium, visual semiotics (Barthes and Peirce), and ecological aesthetics in the context of the Anthropocene. The findings suggest that temporality is constructed through three aesthetic strategies: (1) the symbolic juxtaposition of clean energy technology and traditional agriculture, (2) the use of human posture as an index of psychological temporality, and (3) twilight lighting as a signifier of transition between epochs. The article proposes the concept of an “Aesthetics of the Transitional Moment” as a new analytical framework for interpreting photographic works that capture socio-ecological transformations in rural Thailand. It contributes by bridging global aesthetic theories with a contemporary Thai context and by positioning photography as a discourse on sustainable futures.
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