From no identity to the founded identity

“It all started from my high school years. I was so plain by that time. Can you imagine?” Prae – Rumpaporn Vorasiha downright began the conversation once being asked if she has always liked taking photos since a young age. “I was so unremarkable that I thought it would keep going on like this. It was by then that my school was holding a Science Week fair. I went to the auditorium along with other students. Everyone sat on the ground. Since I was chubby, it was too exhausting to sit for so long. At that moment it happened that P’How (Torwong Salwala – Founder of website and fanpage 2how.com) was recruiting 15 volunteers for a photography class in a forest park, so I applied thinking…”At least this is better than painfully sitting on the floor”. Once we were there, he taught us how to hold a camera, how to stand with legs spread equally, which were such basic things. I felt like it was quite fun. After the class I went back home and spent the whole night on 2how.com.”

Prae revealed that in her state of being unremarkable, her evening routine was just going home and playing games. But once she stepped into the world of photography via 2how.com, her life has never been the same. “As I saw attractive photos on the website, I constantly saved them until it became a hobby I was addicted to.” Prae recalled enthusiastically. “Everyday I had to check for new topics. The site was like a photo archive where people kept feeding new stuff everyday. At that time there was no Facebook yet, this website was a place to have conversations with strangers. It was such an excitement and a joy to me. Once I had seen quite a large amount of photos, I snatched my dad’s camera to take pictures too. But as I didn’t know how to drive, I couldn’t go anywhere that far. So I decided to just take photos of my four close friends who were cute girls and dressed them up for a photoshoot at Railway Park, following the style of Korean series ‘Autumn in My Heart’ which was trending at that time. I tried adjusting the photos in a Korean style and posted them on the website. The feedback was overwhelming, partly because my friends were cute. Gaining a lot of praising comments, I felt addicted and wanted for more. So I kept shooting for my friends who also enjoyed it because they didn’t need to go to PhotoMe at Siam anymore. It was a win for both me and them, and could also be a starting point for my liking in portraits up to now.” 

After her addiction in taking portrait photos, believing she was doing quite well, Prae followed her passion by joining a trip with 2how.com website members, which inspired her to study photography in college. But the thing was that she had zero talent for drawing. “I was awful.” She laughed cheerfully. “But all these faculties required us to draw. By then I wanted to attend these faculties so badly that I asked my friends who had successfully applied for their works and used them for my application, yet it didn’t work. So I gave up and applied for the Film Major at Bangkok University instead, thinking by myself it should be the same, only by myself.”

And did it help? “It seemed so, but it also didn’t.” Prae’s voice was still lively. “The only thing I learned after four years was that I don’t like this path (laugh). I’m a big fan of non-mainstream films, but I had a hard time studying scriptwriting, and other things that weren’t myself at all. I had a great self-loathing during college. But once I graduated, I realized that studying all of these helped me on the aspect of looking at things by sequences, not just stills, kind of.” 

Shooting for others, but this is yourself?

“Let’s say…say I have to shoot portraits for someone, let’s say it’s you” Spark in the eyes of a girl before me was so shining as if it was ignited, making me unable to hold back my smile. “I would think about which part of you that I like, ask you to go for a shoot with me, because I want to capture you. Let’s say you come up with 50% of what I like about you, I really like the figure of you. But the other 50% in the photos would be my direction of what I think or feel while shooting you, let’s put it like this…” She repeated. “I feel so sad right now. I would have you sit here, use this way of lighting to convey my feelings through you. How I see my model through a camera is how I combine myself into them. It’s always been like this. When I was studying in New York, I would explain in class every time I submitted assignments that all the portrait photos I took were my attitude that I had conducted these people to appear so. I wanted to make them look sad, cool, or lonely. All depended on the lighting I controlled. Hence all my photographic works I conveyed are all from myself. Surely it was them, but I didn’t extract myself from them, as I was actually a part of those photos.”

This does sound like she is a photographer who fully and distinctly merge her identity into her work, which she admits it herself. I couldn’t hold back my curiosity on how she set the balance between her identity and the clients’ demands for commercial work. “There are two types of commercial work for me. The first one is shooting only the products, no emotions needed. The second one being key visual shooting for clothing brands.” Prae explained. “Product shooting is just shooting. But for key visuals, clients would give us a subject to contemplate first. There was a client who gave me the keyword ‘lonely’ and had me think about what loneliness is in my opinion. And then I had to coordinate it with their clothes, how would I present their clothes and make it corresponding with the concept. Therefore the best way to show my identity in commercial work is by my choice of lighting, choice of locations, choices of angles, or whatever that I can combine myself into. This allows me to appreciate the work that I produce. It’s not the case to shoot everything up to clients’ preference but none of them is what I like.”

Any goal you want to achieve?

“I keep changing my goals, probably every three months.” Prae paused for a moment. “When I had just graduated, before going to New York, I wanted to be like P’George (Tada Varich – Fashion Photographer) because he can photograph women with sexiness like no one else can, which blows my mind me everytime I look at them. His works have been constantly published in magazines. That time I thought, if not a documentary photographer or a photojournalist, I would want my name to appear on magazines. But after I studied in New York and came back here, I didn’t want to do that anymore. Being famous does not matter at all. My second goal in life would be to start a photographic school, or to give lectures in photography, which I have been doing for a while. So after I had done enough teaching that I became neutral with it, I set the third goal, to start a photographic school. But this is going to take some time. I’m still looking for more friends who share the same vision.” Then what about Sungkrohsang School, which our editor, Toh – Virunan Chiddaycha, is a Co-Founder? I teased. “P’Toh’s school would focus mainly on techniques. It feels like an all-boys school. But the school I attended in New York is for everyone, from little kids to mature adults, like 65 years old, they still come to study. Everyone gets to study equally, start simultaneously, and learn collectively. I want it to be more like that.”  

“If so, that means your objective as a photographer is to portray more than to create in order to become a legend, right?” I assumed. She paused for a moment “I’ve never thought of that.” She hesitated. “I’ve always been a student sitting at the back of class, sleeping at times. I don’t know what changed me. It might be my frustration thinking that I’ve always been in the education system for this whole time, only to realize I didn’t gain anything from it. After I was exposed to the world, saw things as they should be, I think those who love photography just like me should be able to experience these things too…This might be the case.”