Bangkok road sweeper gains fame as model after portrait by Russian man
A Thai road sweeper went viral on social media after a Russian photographer shared her portrait from a street photoshoot in Bangkok’s Chinatown on his TikTok account on Friday, March 14.
The Russian photographer, Semyon Rezchikov, typically shares videos of himself taking portraits of people he meets on the street in each country he visits. The video shows the reaction of each person after seeing their portrait, and he also gives each model a Polaroid as a gift.
Recently, Rezchikov did a street photoshoot in the Chinatown area of Bangkok, and one of the most popular videos featured him taking a portrait of a Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) road sweeper, later identified as Meen.
In the video, Rezchikov captured the moment when Meen was walking on Yaowarat Road. She was wearing the official road sweeper uniform and a hat, carrying her usual tools, a broomstick and a dustpan. In the portrait, she looked at the camera but did not smile.
Rezchikov approached Meen while she was wiping the sweat from her face with her sleeve. Meen removed her earphones and smiled at the Polaroid of herself. She was heard saying, “Beautiful.”
The road sweeper introduced herself to the foreign man, who complimented her, saying, “You’re so beautiful.” Meen responded with a smile and explained that she lived in Bangkok. Although she spoke English, she was not fluent. She then followed the photographer on TikTok.
Single mother
Many Thai TikTok users flooded the comments section with compliments for Meen.
“You are a model, not a road sweeper.”
“You have perfect skin tone!”
“You are so pretty even without make-up.”
“I see her every day on Yaowarat Road!”
“She is going to be famous!”
“Look at her perfect teeth!”
Meen took to the comment section to thank both the photographer and the netizens. She said that all the comments greatly encouraged her and added that she did not expect to receive so much attention from people.
The video also caught the attention of a Thai news agency, and DailyNews posted another photoshoot of Meen, along with her interview, on its official Facebook account on March 16.
Meen revealed in the interview that she had been working as a road sweeper for about a year. She had previously done various jobs but decided to apply for the official road sweeper position to receive welfare and benefits from the BMA.
Meen explained that she is a single mother with two sons, aged 10 and 6 and that the benefits and support from her workplace have been a great help to her family. She finds the job stable and plans to continue working there until her retirement.
@semyonrezchikov
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