Pahparn Sirima

I arrived at Pahparn’s downtown apartment in the middle of a Songkran early afternoon, having managed to dodge the water battle outside. I was a bit nervous; shooting another photographer is always a bit of a challenge. When I knocked on her door, a barrage of barks from Penny, her lovely cocker spaniel, made sure the whole building knew I’d arrived.

While Penny circled around us, we finally sat down for a long-overdue conversation after years of knowing each other mostly through quick hellos at gallery events and occasional institutional collaborations.

While I scratched Penny’s ears, Pahparn shared her story, beginning with a pact she and her five siblings made as teens: to earn top grades and scholarships so their mother wouldn’t carry the burden of tuition costs. She chose film at Bangkok University, won a grant, and paid the rest through her early career as an MC and model. It’s perhaps where she first learned to move effortlessly between roles, a skill set that still defines her today.

I first noticed her name in 2015, just after she became gallery manager at The Jam Factory. Soon after, as I prepared a lecture on Thai street photography, I noticed she was one of the few women featured by the Street Photography Thailand collective. Her images have since appeared in solo and group shows at Kathmandu Photo Gallery, BACC and beyond.

In 2021, she co-founded Hub of Photography, a space dedicated to the medium. During COVID, she launched GroundControl, a creative agency blending art, media and cultural programming. It became her main focus, alongside projects such as GroundPLAY, an art festival mixing music, exhibitions and talks.

Her apartment is a mini-gallery in its own right, lined with books, photographs and prints. As I took her portrait, she explained how she rotates the art on her walls from time to time, perhaps unconsciously, like a curator resetting a show. After the shoot, worried about the water fights outside, I accepted Pahparn’s offer of a ride home. She dropped me at my door, continuing her journey with Penny on her lap.