“Even though I am a book person, I don’t buy books to read everyday.” 

Nat Prakhorbsantisook, responded when he was asked to talk over his expectation on his newly opened independent book store, World at The Corner, that he hosts with her sister, Siwiga Pragorbsantisook.

“I know why and how people would have expectations in this kind of situation (opening a new store), but I don’t want to feel that way. I don’t like expectation because what often comes along is disappointments. I would rather say ‘having hope for something’. What I hope for the store is to not only let it be my own sanctuary, but a treasure room for the book lovers to dig into. I wanted it to be a place filled with sources of inspiration: inspiring more people to start their determination in starting a journey like what I feel when I read, the books trigger my eager to travel. I want people to be encouraged the same way.”

Most of the book selections in the store are regarded to both Nat and Koi’s combined taste. “I love reading. It makes me want to travel. And when I get to travel, then I love to travel. And I’d bring more books to read during my trip. Reading and travelling, they always come in packs, aren’t they?” He laughed. “And the more I read, the more inspired I became. I want to explore even more places and despite the trip in the end did not turn out the way I expected or imagined, but there is always a layer of imaginary image from what I read overlapping on what I see in the reality. It intensifies what I see in real life; it becomes more meaningful. To me, it is not just a market that people walk around, but in each visit, I see a kind of mythology that portrays tremendous stories behind the picture.

“A lot would come telling me that my works have my own signature on it and I have tried to define such signature but I still cannot figure it out. I am just the type of person who do only what I like, and say no to what I don’t.”

As a photographer myself, I cannot hold back my curiosity to asking what Nat’s vision would be like when he switches off his working mode; what would he see and photograph in his personal and casual life? ‘I actually do not have an answer to that” he replied immediately. “A lot would come telling me that my works have my own signature on it and I have tried to define such signature but I still cannot figure it out. I am just the type of person who do only what I like, and say no to what I don’t. Maybe that is the reason for it: knowing and following my own path. During my journeys, I would grab a camera with me. I enjoy seeing unfamiliar things and witnessing what I used to see no books with my own eyes. At first, I would bring along the big full-frame camera with two lenses but ended up leaving one of them in the hotel because it is too heavy to carry (laugh). It is too cumbersome to carry such big camera bags around the mountains and so, so the size of my camera in each trip became smaller and smaller until now, I only use a compact camera. When I am left with the compact camera in my hands where I cannot rely on its quality as much as from other cameras, I then had to work harder for the concept and focus on other aspects of creating the image. I started to focus more on composition, concept justification, and keep practicing any other ways to portray the picture.”

“During my journey, I would practice being ‘alone’ with what I had in my hand. Sometimes I would ask myself: what if the camera is not capable of zooming? I suddenly realised that we are all too often focusing on what we do not have instead of giving the most out of what we already had. When people came to me and ask about what should they buy and what they could primarily do to seriously start their photography path, and I would tell them: ‘you have forgotten the simplest thing, that is to work with what you have got. People are often too busy to seek for the best gadgets and try to imitate the best image by following the exact same step from this and that person, but they forget what they had in the first place and how they could bring the best results out of it. Therefore my journey is more about practicing my ability to work with what is with me and what I can see.’ Nat’s answer has brightened me up. It is so fascinating to acknowledge this simple yet impactful notion.

“I do not agree with it.”, Nat answered when he was asked about the most blooming point of his life. “I understand the term ‘blooming’ as a variable to support one’s self-esteem but it is not how I view the meaning in life. I do not believe in the existence of ‘blooming’ and that someday it might ‘perish’. I think life can be fun everyday. We each change, and are capable of being a different person everyday. What I believe is that when we go to sleep with the impacts from things we faced in the days, during the sleep, our brain would function itself and progress a new idea out of it and guide us to another conventional self in the next morning. Someday, at some point, we might discover a brand new purpose of living that is completely different to our purpose of living that we had yesterday. Therefore, to some extent, it could be said that opening this new store counts as a blooming point of my life; that it is like starting on something new and so. But what it personally means to me is that; I wanted to save this place as my sanctuary by the time that I am bored and tired from work and life overall.”