Laws of censorship in Thailand have long fascinated Tiane Doan Na Champassak. The photographer, who grounds much of his work in Thai culture, has amassed a vast collection – 4,000 strong – of Thai erotic magazines from the 1960s and 70s over the last several years. Since portrayals of nudity in print were not allowed when they were published, the images featured in the magazines were partly covered – but in surprisingly artful ways.

Champassak’s collection is the basis of his latest photo book, aptly titled Censored. “I have been collecting this material since 2010, which was the time I was working on my first self-published book The King of Photography, also a book on appropriation and Thailand,” Champassak tells AnOther. While previous photo books have seen the image-maker add his own marks of censorship to the images, Censored offers a pared-back look at the original techniques. “This is the first time I’m showing these photographs in such a way,” Champassak continues. “Last year I released a book called Siam’s Guy in which I covered all the original magazine photographs on my own, applying censorship on all images. This time I reversed the act, showing only the beautiful details censored by hand that were hiding underneath my prints.”