Graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Chemical Engineering in 2008, Pichaya Viwatrujirapong started working in oil and gas industry where he met his fellow amateur photographers and developed his interest in photography.
That was the beginning when photography becomes his hobby. He started off with street photography and later on moved into street and stranger portrait. After his first trip to Nepal in April 2011, his interest in photography expanded. Photography becomes a part of his life. It becomes a part of his identity.
Later that year, he started to study more about the art and aspect of photography and dwell into landscape photography. Pichaya also started to participate in quality Thai photographer community called “Pixpros”, where he was exposed to extinguished high-quality photographs and study photography techniques from shooting to post processing. With inspiration from David duChemin, Timothy Allen, Eric Lafforgue, Eric Valli, Paisan Chareoncharutkun, Vorrarit Anantsorrarak, Flickr community, Pixpros community, and his love in travelling/trekking to exotic places, he later became fond of travel photography.
In his travel portrait and street photography work, all of his subjects are strangers he met across his journey.
His aim is to capture the essence of life. In his mind, he always tries to capture the emotion and the character. By telling the story of individuals, he wants to show his audiences, what “life” is. He believes that it is not just about how photographer expresses his (or her) vision on subject and the world alone, but also how the “subject” himself (or herself) sees the world.
While his portrait work focuses on the concept of life, his landscape photos focus on personal connection between him and nature. For Pichaya, mountain is a sanctuary where he finds peace and solitude away from his engineering work. During his trek, he always immerses himself in the vastness of nature, trying to lose his ego as a process of understanding nature. Photography then becomes his quest to find the deeper meaning between him and nature.
Different from professional photographers, Pichaya is an amateur photographer who is trying to find “himself” by experimenting with various styles of photography.
He believe that he must strive to improve his skills in visioning, handling camera, and post processing in order to develop his unique “vision” and “style”.
His current project is to complete the set of photos from his 15-days-trekking trip to Gokyo Ri and Chola Pass in Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal. His next stops will be Burma and the USA. In addition, he would love to visit his dreamed destinations, which are Mongolia and Pakistan in a near future.Pichaya Viwatrujirapong is currently residing in Nonthaburi, Thailand as a full-time engineer working in water treatment industry. Photography is also his current number one hobby.
