AKFP 4

Three things: Ears, Shoulder Pads, FRUIT PANTS.

(Spotted near Costco in Seoul.)

ATFP

Time for Awkward Thai Family Photos! Unfortunately, I was too timid to take a photo of what was possibly the most awkward family photo I've spotted to date. It contained nudity, so some censoring would have been necessary for online publication anyway. A description will have to suffice.

On a busy Bangkok street, amid several food and merchandise stalls was a photo shop. Outside the shop was a three-foot-tall glossy poster, an aerial shot of two adorable babies. Lying on their backs. Wearing colorful headbands. And socks. And nothing else. Certainly some people think baby nudity is no big deal, but I feel strange after accidentally seeing a tiny Thai twig-and-berries, so into the Awkward file it goes.

As a consolation prize, here's a photo of me and my orangutan friend at the zoo in Bangkok. It would be much less awkward if he would have stopped playing with his nipple long enough to take a photo. His handler kept yelling, "Bam! Bam!" which I'm guessing was either his name or how to say, "Stop playing with your nipple!" in Thai.

AKFP 3

This weather-beaten gem's highlights are the shoelessness, the dad's strained hand-on-leg placement and the size of that boy's apple.

AKFP 2

Spotted another Awkward Korean Family Photo in Seoul near a big palace! In addition to the sheer size of this piece (5' tall), the bow ties and animal print really caught my eye. Poor kid in the middle just wants to go play soccer and computer games.

Awkward Korean Family Photos

I've spotted a lot of Olan Mills-esque photo shops around town, starting with the one where I had my Glamour Shot taken my first week here. Many of these establishments display examples of their finest work on the sidewalk, surely delighting the moms of the babies often shown in the photos. On the other hand, the look on this kid's face suggests that he had a feeling his floral pajama-clad likeness was going to end up on the sidewalk of Mansu-dong, where his classmates would frequently walk past and admire ridicule it. I'll be on the lookout for more Korean examples of unfortunate photos; in the meantime there's a website dedicated to helping us revel in other families' gracelessness.