Phuket in Time began as a way for me to look more carefully at the island around me. The Phuket most people know is beautiful, but simplified: beaches, sea, sunsets, holidays. The real place is far denser than that. It carries a long history of migration, trade, labour, religion, urban change, and disappearance, and traces of that history still survive everywhere, often unnoticed.
This project tries to make those traces visible. By matching old photographs to present-day locations, I want to show not only what Phuket looked like, but how it changed, what was lost, and what still remains in plain sight. Sometimes history survives in obvious landmarks; sometimes in things people walk past every day without a second thought.
As a migrant myself, I am drawn to Phuket partly because so much of its visible past was also shaped by movement — Hokkien, Malay, Indian, European, Thai from other regions — each leaving traces in the shrines, the food, the architecture, the family names still in use. That gives this project a personal dimension for me, but not a possessive one. It is a way of learning the island more seriously and sharing that process with others, especially visitors and residents who sense there is much more here than the standard tourist image suggests.
I am not an academic historian, and I do not claim perfect certainty. Everything here is researched and written as carefully as I can manage, but this is an ongoing project, and I am always open to corrections, better sources, old photographs, and local stories. Preserving memory matters, especially now, when the boundary between record, reconstruction, and invention is becoming less stable.
If this project works for you the same way it did for me, it changes the way you see Phuket. After that, the postcard version of Phuket is never quite enough.
About the archive
Each pin on the map marks a place where an old photograph was taken, somewhere between the 1900s and the 1990s. Pin titles use the historical name of each location where known, which does not always match the name in use today. The archive covers Phuket and parts of neighbouring Phang Nga province where the histories are closely linked.
The descriptions draw on published histories, archival records, academic research, Thai-language Facebook groups where residents share memories and corrections, and online forums where families and long-time Phuket residents recall the places shown here. Sources and credits are noted within each entry; a consolidated bibliography is in preparation.
Photographs are credited wherever the photographer or source is known. The archive on this site is free to access and made in the spirit of preservation. If you are a photographer, family member, or rights holder and would prefer your work be removed, reframed, or credited differently, please write and I will respond promptly.
The site is currently in English. Thai, Russian, and Chinese versions are planned and being worked on.
Contribute
If you have old photographs of Phuket, corrections to offer, a story connected to a place on the map, or a lead on a photographer or family whose work should be represented here, please write to madam@phuketintime.com
A phone photograph of a faded print sitting in a drawer is perfectly welcome — you do not need professional scans or high-resolution files. Even a rough image with a location and an approximate date can unlock a story that no published source has recorded. Photographs from neighbouring provinces with connections to Phuket's history are also of interest. If you are unsure whether something is useful, send it anyway.