Leica
Ambassadors Thailand

Leica Ambassadors Thailand

Pornphoj Kanjanahattakij, or commonly known as Sixtysix, is a Bangkokbased photographer and creative consultant. He was born in Thailand but raised in United Kingdom where he studied Visual Communication and Product Design. He is a new age, lifestyle & portraits photographer who is known for his unconventional style and has been regarded as one of the tastemakers in Bangkok photography scene.

“Almost everyday, we are taking photos of the same things, same places, same people or even the same lightings. It’s all been done, taken millions of times over. What I do before I press the button is I put myself in an imaginary box .. a box that most people are in, imagine every aspects of a “good” photography and what makes photos “beautiful”. Pretend that I read the same book as everyone else. Then I snap back into my own world, throw away the box, close that book and will try to break all the rules and come up with something new .. something I like”.

Virunan Chiddaycha was born and raised in Bangkok. He got his BA from Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University. In 2009, he went to Paris to get his Master Degree in photography at SPEOS Photographic Institute. His passion for photography kept him in the region for another 4 years whilst he explored fine art photography, publishing and commercial photography before moving back to his hometown.

Virunan is a commercial portrait and fine art photographer who ‘s particularly interested in the way society is organised can create both the root causes of conflict, also general being of humanity and moral in the society. He counts photography icons Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton , Sally Man ,Saul Leiter and Diane Arbus as major influences. His latest achievement was to pick up Silver and Bronze Lions at the Cannes Lions 2016 and 2017 for his work in collaboration with the renowned TBWA Thailand for McDonald’s “Loving the night” print campaign.

Virunan Chiddaycha was born and raised in Bangkok. He got his BA from Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University. In 2009, he went to Paris to get his Master Degree in photography at SPEOS Photographic Institute. His passion for photography kept him in the region for another 4 years whilst he explored fine art photography, publishing and commercial photography before moving back to his hometown. Virunan is a commercial portrait and fine art photographer who ‘s particularly interested in the way society is organised can create both the root causes of conflict, also general being of humanity and moral in the society. He counts photography icons Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton , Sally Man ,Saul Leiter and Diane Arbus as major influences. His latest achievement was to pick up Silver and Bronze Lions at the Cannes Lions 2016 and 2017 for his work in collaboration with the renowned TBWA Thailand for McDonald’s “Loving the night” print campaign.

Tul Hirunyalawan is a contemporary photography artist as he is acclaimed. He works as a special instructorin photography for many universities in Thailand. He also serves as President of the Royal Photographic Society of Thailand under the Royal Patronage of His Majesty the King, one of Leica Ambassador Thailand.

He values a camera as a timekeeper and a moment recorder to capture his minds, emotions and thoughts throughout 18 years of being a photography artist. The moment he is capturing photos, the artist naturally visualizes looking through a viewfinder. Although the surroundings are snapped from actual reality, another parallel world is created by his imagination, which penetrates into every single breath.

Tul is fascinated by the aesthetics of imperfection from what is missing or inordinate things around him to trace his own emotional layers deep down in his mind. He believes that there are numerous invisible spaces in each own world through the process of thinking through personal belief and faith. He believes that his world is artistic as it is, even if other people’s worlds are said to be more splendid.

Phapfah Puttharugsa (Bink) was born into a family of artists in Bangkok. Her goal was always to study medicine or medicinal chemistry until, at the age of 15, she began to question herself, “Will I actually be able to walk this path to the end without getting tired of it?” This caused Phapfah to reconsider her options, which led her to drop out of formal education and obtain a GED at age 16. After that, she devoted all her time to the one thing she had grown up with but never really tried committing herself to: art.

At first she practiced on her own, then took short courses on design in Thailand and abroad. During this time, in 2011, she also began posting her artwork on Instagram and increasing her follower count, which continues to grow as more and more people recognize her as an artist.

A few years later, Phapfah felt that she had reached a bottleneck in terms of her drawing skills. She considered finding another way to experience new things, and Leica was her first companion. Now that 78 years have passed, photography has not only become another passion of hers, but has also helped her return to drawing.

Traveling, taking photographs, and talking to strangers are now her solace. Phapfah views photographs as another form of canvas. She believes that we all have tints of feeling at certain moments that only our eyes can see. She puts those colors into her photographs, hoping that people who see them will be taken into the moments when the shutter was pressed.

Peerapat Wimolrangkarat’s passion for photography developed when he was still an architecture student at Assumption University. His continued devotion has landed him a position as a personal photographer to the former Prime Minister of Thailand, Abhisit Vejjajiva. Add pursues his career as a life, portrait and documentary photography and joined “The Standard” as a Photo Editor for the group.

Apart from the architectural significance that serves as his backdrop, it also portrays the emotions he feels towards the various spaces he encounters. Sometimes, when he travel, he choose to capture that beauty with our eyes rather than through a camera. However, in certain places where we have experiences, memories, and connections, we opt to record what’s in front of us with a camera instead. Through Add’s lens, those places are reflected, encompassing aspects of beauty, hope, and even dreams, as if the boundaries of the location and those emotions have blended together.

Chutchawarn Janthachotibutr was hooked on photography from the very moment his father gave him his first camera when he was 15. He move to New York in 2012 to pursue his life’s goal of becoming a street / documentary photographer and finished his stint at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in Decumentary Photography Class with Andre Lambertson. Now permanently based in Bangkok, Chut continues his photographic journey and creative explorations through various compelling projects. He recently joined the SATI Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that focuses on improving health care and education in underserved areas of Thailand and beyond, to conduct photography art therapy class for street kids.