"Jatenipat Ketpradit: Can a Portrait Preserve a Culture"

“I got messages from the new generation who live in the north and in the border between Thailand and Burma, who live in the city, and they see my work. And they messaged me, not, only one, many, many, many, many, many people they message me, to thank me to show the beauty of their own culture and their traditional clothes, things that are very, very beautiful. And, because they are, like I told you before, I think they are shy if they wear these clothes like this, but right now they are very happy and they should be proud of this. And that motivates me a lot and really want me to do more projects about this, because it's more than money or more than the prizes that I got. Right? Because your photo, is not just showing it to the world or go to a photo competition. A photo can heal, can change people and can preserve.”

Intro:

Greetings and welcome to another episode of The Camera Café Show, the podcast where we brew up inspiration for your photography journey! I am your host Tom Jacob, and behind the scenes are Richard Clark and Tetiana Malovana pouring this all into a wonderful podcast venture. You know how sometimes by sheer accident you get to meet or find the most wonderful photographers online? This was the case with our guest of today, as I was scouting for someone who could tell us some stories about worldwide cultural identities, the amazing tribes still existing today and had great travel portrait photography skills? And then I came upon Jatenipat Ketpradit from Thailand. As I looked through his work and website I was immediately hooked, and I can say for me personally, he’s one of the best photographers in this genre that we have today in the world. 

Jatenipat, also known as JKBoy, has been published in multiple magazines, held worldwide exhibitions and is a multi-award-winning photographer, which includes winning the International Photographer of the Year at the Refocus Awards, the First Prize in the International Portrait Photographer of the Year by National Geographic, and he’s been a Nikon judge for their annual competition. Apart from all that, for all the work he did, he is also the Cultural Ambassador in Thailand for Mongolia. His portraits of indigenous tribes across Mongolia, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, and beyond capture not just faces, but the stories, traditions, and identities of cultures at risk of fading away.

If you’re passionate about travel, culture, and portrait photography, this episode is one you won’t want to miss. In this episode, we explore:

What cultural identity means in photography and how Jatenipat builds deep trust with the people he photographs.

The years of preparation behind his work—why research, respect, and patience are essential.

The challenges of working in extreme environments—from the freezing cold of Mongolia to the humid jungles of Papua New Guinea.

How his portraits helped revive local traditions—he was one of the first photographers looking for Mongolia’s eagle hunters.

His thinking on what makes a truly powerful portrait and how new photographers should start out.

So, let’s start traveling deep into the world of cultural identity, portrait photography, and adventure…grab a coffee, get comfortable, and enjoy this interview with Jatenipat Ketpradit.

Tom: Welcome, Jatenipat on our podcast tonight. Well, tonight for you because it's almost 12 o'clock in the night, where you are in Bangkok.

Jatenipat: Yes. Thank you for inviting me to join your podcast. It's my honor, and I'm very happy to talk about my photography.

Tom: And this is what we are going to do in the next hour. Talk about your amazing work.

Jatenipat: Thank you very much. Yes.

Tom: To start out, for all our listeners, last time I talked with Jatenipat, I asked him, please email me your best recipe of Pad Thai.

Jatenipat: Oh, I forgot!

Tom: You didn't do it. Haha.

Jatenipat: Better I show you. When you come to Bangkok, we can make it together.

Tom: You will show me. Okay.  Jatenipat, how would you describe yourself to someone that is not familiar with your work?

Jatenipat: Am a professional photographer who works on culture photography and portrait photos. But sometime landscape too. I'm working in photography field for more than 15 years. Yes. And I travel a lot of the world to see the very interesting, very beautiful culture, beautiful people, and take photos of these beautiful cultures to show to the world. This is the work I do.

Tom: We will go in depth a bit more later about all these magnificent cultures and tribes you photographed, but for now, Jatenipat, walk us a bit back to the time where you weren’t a photographer. What did you do before photography?

Jatenipat: Actually, I graduated from the engineering school in and I do network engineering before photography. But it just like a Asian guy, Asian teen that the parents forced me, us, to be an engineer or be a doctor or something like that. You cannot do yourself what you love you in the university or in the student time. So, when I finish, when I graduate and I work some two years in engineering fields, I didn't feel happy, so I quit the job and just buy a cheap, very cheap, really cheap camera. A compact one. A Canon Power Shot, or similar, and just get that camera and go along to the south part of Thailand and visit a lot of beaches and islands, and it is just enjoy my time. Time to find yourself what you love and what you think. So, I really enjoyed my little camera and I just find that, oh, this is what I should be learning more about. So, I just do research and study from the internet.

That time not much online course like today. So, I do by myself. And books, from the paper because in Thailand is not that many place to learn about photography. Or from a website, of course. And after that I travel to the first place is India, in Kashmir to take photos. There are a lot of people and there this a really beautiful landscape too. I take time there and I am really happy with the people and with the landscape photos. So I strive to do more photography after that. And I just improve by go out going out there.

Tom: You were not still married yet or nothing?

Jatenipat: Oh no, at that time I'm not married yet. Yes. That why I can and go out very often!

Tom: Because it's a big step, Jatenipat, from finishing a career deciding not to do this career to deciding to go to and do photography,

Jatenipat: Yes.

Tom: You have to start from somewhere to win money. It's a big step.

Jatenipat: Yeah. Yes, yes. That's why I have to work for engineering for a few years to collect the money and then go out and learn some. And I'm happy because my wife she love to travel and love photography too, so she understand what I love, and now we are enjoying to go out together.

Tom: And this curiosity in cultures and tribes, when did this start? This was already before you took the camera or when you had the camera in your hand.

Jatenipat: My interest about cultures is from before I have a camera, because when I was in school before, I really love to read books in the library about the history, the culture, the mystery thing, the legends, from the many, many places around the world. Even from the movies or go to historical places. I will go and visit and when I go to travel, it's good for me because I can see those places, and all the little things and the real people. And that's why I love to take photos of cultures and study them.

Tom: And I think then it came a bit of your breakthrough moment, when you won the International Portrait Photographer of the Year by National Geographic.

Jatenipat: Yes. I'm happy about that, when I won, because actually I do photos, at first, it's a hobby and for my own, I didn't send my work to photo competitions before. But many people talk to me that you should send your photos to competitions because we didn't have social media like Facebook or so, like today. But at that time, I am still afraid to getting into a competition because it's lack of the confidence or something like that.

But the thing that changed because I go to Mongolia and I take a portrait of the eagle hunters in the western parts of Mongolia. It is the first time for me to take a photo of the culture of people and the local people, they are really happy because they like me to come to visit their village. So I thought this is a good time to send photo to the competition, because through the competition, and they publish my work on their own channel and spread my work, around the world. And I'm really lucky because I won the first award, the first prize in that competition.

It changed me a lot because after that I got a lot of contacts from many, many media outlets to want to interview me or something like that. And I do many, many things in Mongolia after. I hear the Mongolia people comment about a cultural travel route and I go to visit the Nomar people in the Gobi desert. It’s some lost culture, or that's almost lost and they want to help me build it up again for tourism again and present to the UNESCO. So I think I helped them a lot. Just as I am a culture Ambassador of Mongolia, to promote the culture of Mongolia.

Tom: We will come a bit later back to this project because it's not the first time you go somewhere and then tourism opens up because of your work, which is in itself amazing, really.

Jatenipat: Yeah.

Tom: Jatenipat, talk me a bit about, you are now like the cultural ambassador for Mongolia. Yes?

Jatenipat: Yes.

Tom: How came this to be?

Jatenipat: Because as I told you, it's because I helped Mongolia with their tourism many, many times on many, many routes. That route I did in the Goby desert, that is the first time, nobody before take photos of the sand dunes with the camel caravan before. I am the one who opens this photography route and tell to the local people about it and let the local people know about the photography possibility. That time visitors come to Mongolia and see just the local people, and they don't know about how to deal with photographers. So I go there and I teach them that we should set something up and create something, like a color scene on the sand dunes. And it's quite really popular now. You can see a lot of the photography doing those color shots with camels now, the picture on the sand dunes,

Even for the eagle hunters in the Kazan area. I help them a lot to improve their tourism over there. I try to find some good photo spot and promote a lot of photo from that place. And right now I think it's really popular. Many, many, many eagle hunters and they are well known. They are very friendly right now but in my time it's really hard to find a eagle hunter that you can take their photo. But right now they know about photographers. So it's easy now.

And I go to the north of Mongolia, to the Shahan people, the Lenier people, for the first time too, because they never let people take their photo before. They still a bit afraid, because they think the camera will take their soul, because they still believe in shamanism. I had to go two times to see the Shahan people to let them get used to with the camera. But right now photography with the Shahan people is quite popular too. So all this, the Mongolian government, they notice and they know about my work, and so they appoint me as a cultural ambassador for Mongolia. To promote the Mongolian culture.

Tom: I want to know Jatenipat, let's say now you're going to shoot a new tribe or a new interesting culture. What is your personal interest to go there and to make pictures of a certain tribe?

You have like a list of cultures or certain tribes you want to make pictures off, or they come by seeing an inspiration.

Jatenipat: Actually, I have a list, right. But you cannot go to these places by list number one, number two, number three, because it's just like there might be a special occasion or like a perfect moment, that this the right time to go there. You have to find local people who can help you try just coordinating with each other and find the perfect time.

So I have to go to that place first, take a photo and come back another time to finish the project. But, yes, I have a list of the tribes that I want to go to. I still have on my list South Asia or Sudan, some part of Papua New Guinea.

Tom: Because what I'm coming to is, for the people who listen to this episode, is that you do a lot of preparation before you go there.

Jatenipat: Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Tom: You need to do a lot of preparation before you can go.

Jatenipat: Yes. Because before I go, I plan more than a half year for each project, right? Because I have to scout for the location and to contact with the local people and find a local guide when I visit, because sometimes there aren’t any real guides. And sometimes they too have a problem because the guide, they don’t know how to work with the locals.

So I first spent at least two weeks to one month with the local people. The first week is to get to learn their culture. We are cooking together, drinking together, chatting together, and learn their culture. Let them get used to me and get to know me. When I go to a new place, I always visit the elder, the leader of the tribe to show my work and to let them know what I come here to do. And I will bring my presents, such as small toy for kids and some cooking equipment for the ladies in the clan somewhere.

That is really useful because, when you get into the wife and kids of the family, you can really go easily the man or the leader of the tribe.

Tom: You are very wise. You win the hearts of the women first.

Jatenipat: Yeah,

Tom: So you cook Thai food for the people?

Jatenipat: Yes, yes. I cook Thai food. I bring some Thai or Indian food and go cook with them. Yeah. I think people love Thai food, even in those areas. Also in the places that I go, they have maybe Thai ingredients, but they don’t know how to hook with it. Like Thai holy basil, something like that. People they don't know how to use it. So I just show them, this is Thai herb, we cook with it like this and then they know how to do it.

Tom: And then the women, they like your food, and then the chief has no other means then, yes, you can take pictures.

Jatenipat: Yeah. Yes.

Tom: You also bring a Polaroid camera, I think Jatenipat, to take pictures?

Jatenipat: Oh yes, yes. It is to take photos with it, because when you go on the road, you see the interesting people and maybe you will not see them again, because it's just one in the lifetime meeting. So just I use a Polaroid to take a photo and give it to them, to open their mind because they got their photo. Sometimes that might be the first photo of them in their life. So,they are really easy to let me take a photo of them. Because when I visit, go and visit the tribe, I not go only one time, I at least should we go two times because the first time we go and learn each other, take some photo, and we come back and then bring some photo gear and go back again.

So I give this first photo to the people, and then yes, the second time is really easy because they are really happy and they want to take more photos of their family to have it and hang in their home.

Tom: Before we start on the projects you did Jatenipat, I want to touch a moment, when people see your amazing pictures online, and I urge everybody to take a look at your website with amazing stories, that people or photographers might think that you just gather some clan people there around and you make a picture. But no, there is a long thinking process in the way you make your pictures.

Tell me a bit about this, how much time you need and how you do the setup with your gear.

Jatenipat: When I go to take a photo with the tribal people, in the first week, like I told you, I go to check out and learn everything of that location. I look at the light, the sunrise, the sunset, and visit each house, each family, looking for some people that are very photogenic and maybe have a very unique personality to show. The ones to be a representative of the tribe, something like that.

So I have to go and visit them, ask them polite to maybe be my model? And they will show the like the clothes they have, like costumes, maybe a hat with a feather or something like that. And I can choose, oh, that one is very good for the photo, and so on. Then in this first week we go together, maybe at the hunting time or their free time, because I don't want to disturb them, because they have to go to the livestock, some have to go doing agriculture, and some hunt, right? So I ask them for free time, maybe in the afternoon or before sunset to take a photo of them. It doesn’t take that a long because if you take long time, they're going to be bored, so, I have to set everything really perfect. I add a light stand and the flash, and I just tell them to just turn left like this and look at the camera, or to just look at the light here or to the sun and talk to them in the meanwhile. That way they will be more relaxed and they will show their personality. And at that time, I capture the moment and that's it. And I go on doing this for the second week and third week, trying to find some locations or a good spot. The hard thing is a group shot, because you have to plan everything.

So, the people stand there all to show the beauty of their culture , because I want them to proud of their beautiful culture. Because right now the local people, they still think they are outdated and they are a bit so shy to showing their own culture and go like that out in the city, right? I want them to understand this, because right now, even me, I can call only recall that with my own grand father, I don’t even know what my own culture wears or what my own traditional dress is. Right? But they still have their own dress or that traditional way, so they need to be proud of it. I want to let them know about this.

A good group photo that takes time, because you cannot control all those people at the same time. Right? I take many, many shots, but I use only few, two or three of them with the perfect moment. And it is also very hard if you have animals in the picture, such as a horse or holding an eagle, because, you cannot control them. They're going to be looking over there, look over here, walk over there, something like that. So you need time for a perfect shot.

That's why I only have time for one photo. So that's why I have to stay very long times in some case. Very long time. Yes.

Tom: If you take a group picture, Jatenipat, you make like a sketch how you want it to be, or you have it in your head?

Jatenipat: Yeah. Normally I have it in my head when I am there in the first week, right? I will capture some location with my iPhone and I will suggest people to stand there in certain parts, maybe with some people in the background so see how is the light from this direction.

I have to imagine in my head first, right? And then when we go to for the real shooting, I have to do it again because maybe something changed or maybe sometime there is no good sunlight. Sometime people get sick or they don’t want to go today, something like that.

So we have to adapt in time. I just have a draft plan to take the photo. I need at least the main guy in the photo, and I can set up another composition behind him to try and make a good photo.

Tom: Well, a photographer's life is not easy always.

Jatenipat: Yes right!

Tom: Let's dive into your projects for a bit, maybe the most interesting part of the podcast. As you did so many things, I picked some randomly Jatenipat to see if you can detail them a bit.

You already talked about Mongolia, about the eagle hunters,

Jatenipat: Yes.

Tom: you were one of the first, who went out to find them because there weren't almost any eagle hunters when you went there. When was this?

Jatenipat: It's about 2015, something like that. That first time it's very, very hard to find them. I go with my local guide, we go together, and he never went to that place and he never had contact with the eagle hunters before. So we had to go together and knock on every door and ask if there lives an eagle hunter still here. In that time this, there weren’t that many eagle hunters left, maybe only 200 or so in the country, so I have to knock on every door to find them.

And sometimes when we found an eagle hunter, he just let the eagle go, because they change the eagles every seven years. After seven year they release it back to the nature and get a new one. Then, when I found a hunter and got the eagles, I had to find a horse. In that time I went, in the end of October, the weather is really cold, so they release their horses to nature and pastures to let them find grass to eat. So, the horse that they have it doesn’t that look good. The photo needed, in my imagination, I think I want to take a photo of the eagle hunter on a white beautiful horse, on the top of the hill.

That's my first plan. So I have to find white horse. So I had to look a long long time to find a white horse for the eagle hunter, but after some time, I found three.

So, the first time I got there I found three eagle hunters still with an eagle. When that first project started, I just spend one week that time. First time is one week in October to visit, live and sleep it in the hunter house, all together. And after that, I went back again in summertime next year. And then year after year, I go back again and again to take photos and promote. I found one eagle huntress in a place, in that time, that didn’t have much eagle hunters. Maybe one or two. But I found one young girl this time, she just only seven years old. Yes. And I took her photo and because her characteristic and everything, she’s really unique, her face and the outfit to represent her tribe. So I asked her to be my model and year after year I took her photo. Atlanta, she's very popular in the eagle hunters place now, many documentary film makers come to take photo or even videos of her. Yes. And I'm very happy because I'm the one who rising her as a star or something like that.

Tom: You ever tried yourself to hunt with an eagle?

Jatenipat: Not not yet. I can't hold an eagle, but just hold it to take a photo. But they will try to hunt if you have it on you. Yeah.

Tom: Because how heavy is an eagle?

Jatenipat: It's about seven kilograms.

Tom: Seven kilos. And how long they have to train them?

Jatenipat: Ah, they will catch the young bird from the nest. When the boys of the clan, they get 14 years old, the father will bring him to the cliff and we will find some nest, and they take some eagle babies, and they will bring them to home. The eagle will live in the back room of the house. The eagle cannot see anything there, just only hear the owner voice, the hunters voice. They will let them get used to the voice of the hunter.

So when they take the eagle out, they will take off their hat the eagle wears over their eyes to train them. They will take the hat off when they want to let them hunt some small animal. They will start with a rabbit first and go to the fox and maybe sometimes a bigger animal. They'll be ready for hunting after two years of raising the eagle. And they'll choose the female eagle because it's really bigger than the male, and very good for hunting.

Tom: What is the biggest prey that an eagle can catch?

Jatenipat: Some people, some old men, told me that a long time ago they found some human bones in the eagle nest, baby human bones. They told me about it, but I'm not sure it's a real or not. Yeah. But sometime they use two eagles to hunt animals like wolfs. The wolf in Mongolia is very big.

Tom: And then Jatenipat, you shot these first pictures and photographers saw your work, and then tourism really opened up…and now there are many tours to go to see the eagle hunters.

Jatenipat: Yeah. Yes. Right now they all go to the same place that I went before, they use even the same horse! But it's okay.

Tom: Let’s walk a bit over to another place. Tell me about the reindeer people, Jatenipat. How did you find them? Because I think it's very difficult to find these people.

Jatenipat: It's very difficult. The first time I read about the reindeer people, the Shaan people, I'm very surprised that some of my friends in Mongolia, they said that in Mongolia they have them too. They call Tsaatan people, a nomad tribe who live in the north of Mongolia. That's in the border between Mongolia and Russia. So I think I have to go and visit them, right? They just show me some photos of them but taken a really long time ago and not good photos.

So I finish the eagle hunter photos, and I want to do my project about their reindeer tribe people. So I let a friend of mine, we already got really close working together, let him find some contacts with the Tsataan people. But the people, they are the nomads, right, they are migrating, they move around. So they're gonna have their own place in every season, like they have a summer spot, they have a winter spot, they have the autumn spot. So when they come to the village to sell their reindeer horns, or the reindeer skin, to with to trade with the medicine or for clothes, my friend contacted with them that we are planning to visit their settlement in winter times.

The first time that we plan to go and meet together is in December. I choose the wintertime because if I go in the Autumn and not in the wintertime, it's gonna be muddy all around. There’s gonna be a lot of mud and you cannot go buy a car then. You will have to ride a horse for one week go to the village, so would take too much time. So I choose the winter and also then the reindeer have a great fur and the horns are going to be so really beautiful.

But winter is cold, it’s like -40 Celsius at least. So you have to go and stay at their home. A tipi, like a home, made of reindeer skin, and we have a fire in the center to that to keep us warm. So that first time, we go together with my guide, with my local friend and go to visit the leader of the clan. And at first we are not allowed to take a photo because they never do it before and they're still nervous. So we have to drink a lot that night. I bring vodka as a gift to the chief of the clan and after 3:00 AM we are almost family, we talk the same language even, haha. So, they allow me to take a photo with some people. I take some, but since they still believe in Shamanism, I want to take a photo of the Shaman, but in that time, they didn't allow to take it because you need the special permit or something like that again. So, with my drinks another night followed, and in the next day I can take a shot of the Shaman finally.

It was the first time someone took a Shaman photo of the reindeer people. But I was lucky because I took the photo of the Shaman and the day after the snowstorm comes in, it's very, very hard snow. If you stay in the village, you cannot get out for one month, you are stuck there. So I have to decide and we have to leave the village before the storm comes in too hard. I only had two days to take photos of them and had to run away. So I promise to myself and promise to the chief that I will come back in next year to take more photos.

And after one year I go back, and give the photos I took and printed to them. Suddenly everyone open their door and they say my photo too, come and take my photo or something like that. So I was very happy and right now it's very easy to take them photos. Yeah.

Tom: But this is because you bring one bag with photo gear and one bag with vodka.

Jatenipat: Haha, yeah. Yes. And another thing you have to concern when you go to a remote area, because they don't have electricity, right? In the wintertime when the weather is very cold, the battery is going to be gone so fast. You have to prepare a lot of batteries and calculate everything; how many you need and how many shots you can take per day.

Tom: This, we will come back later because I'm going to ask you about gear Jatenipat, but the last project, because we still have a little bit of time, the Ghosts of Asaro, please tell me about this project. It looks wonderful.

Jatenipat: Yeah. The Ghosts of Asaro, they are tribal people in center of Papua New Guinnea. They believe in spirits and they wear a mask that is made from clay, and paint their body with the white clay just as a ghost to confuse their enemy, to let them run away, because in the jungle they still believe in ghost. So this is their trick and their way to scare the enemy, something like that. I've been to Papua New Guinnea before, but when I go to these people, I'm really happy because at first I think they're going to be, in my imagination, I think maybe they are scary or they're going to eat me or not, or something like that. But after I visit them, everybody is very, very friendly and drinking their own alcohol that they made at the campfire and I even have my own butler there who is Asaro. I really, really love the place, the culture, the people and their outfit is really very unique. Only one place in the world that you can see the people wearing this. And they have their own story, religion, about the outfit, about the costumes and everything. So, I stay with them and learn about the culture and the location over there. And it's really good because I found the mountain that you can see on my panorama photo, that the people all the stand on the top, all on the mountain. We go at the 3:00 AM in the morning since I already go to that place the day before in the afternoon to check everything, to check on the app on my phone that where is the sun, direction of the sunrise and sunset, things like that and I marked everything. And we are walking together up at 3.00am and some of them help me to carry my strobes and material to go up with me. And it's very lucky because that day we have such a good sunlight, and I got a more beautiful photo than I could imagine!

After the sunrise shot, I followed and found some caves, so we go inside the cave and take another shot in that cave. And after that we go down and relax, and the day after we go to take photo in another place. But my favorite place is on that top of that mountain. It's very beautiful. You can see the landscape, the homeland of those people.

Tom: I love your energy and the happiness which I hear when you talk about different tribes. Jatenipat, what you do is, you make them the pictures and you show it to us, to the world….Is there anything that they teached you?

Jatenipat: About the people, right, the local people?

Tom: About yourself?

Jatenipat: When you go to, when I visit, some kind of people around the world, I really surprised that because all of them, they are really respectful with the nature, because most of them still believe in spirits. They still believe that when the ancesters die, they're going to stay with the river, with the mountain, with the trees. So they really respect the nature and they will never destroy it..

And I am really very happy because most of the news that I hear right now actually in Thailand, they say that the tribal people in the forest, they're the one who take care and look after this natur. When you travel to many places, that is  very good for you. Yeah. When you go to the past that who, they don't know who you are and you just only one small, tiny spot in the world, right? No one care about you and you don't have to care about other, you can be your own right? That makes you very friendly everyone equal, or make you very, very humble. It make you travel more. Yes. You gonna see how big the world is.

Tom: Of course it also helps you come from the land of smiles, so you don't have a problem with talking to people and getting their picture and not speaking the language.

Jatenipat: Yes. That may be a good thing of Thailand!

Tom: Talk me a bit about gear, what you're using these days , to shoot your pictures.

Jatenipat: Normally I use my Nikon. I started with a Nikon D800. And it developed from there. The D810, the D850, and right now I use Nikon Z8. But some projects, I use some special cameras that I got some support from the another camera brand such as Hasselblad or Fuji, because I choose the camera that suits for my work. So I use a medium format camera to take certain portraits, so that they keep the detail of the outfit, the texture of the dress, of the hair, things like that. I need a camera that can give me a lot of the details so. But really love my Nikon Z8, because it is very fast when I focus for the moving things, for the things.

Tom: And then you also bring a lot of other gear, I think, Jatenipat, you also bring soft boxes, strobes, flash heads?

Jatenipat: Yeah, yeah, I have two softboxes and two strobes. That's it. Because I cannot carry too much because we just go maybe two or three people at the time to carry everything and go into the jungle. And the lens that I use is not that F/2.8. I use F/4 four because it's more lightweight, and if it breaks, you can throw it away and buy new one. It is very cheap, right? You use a F/2.8 is gonna be more heavy and you have to carry it all day, and if it breaks, you’ll be crying.

Tom: Then you have this gear, but of course you are all with some tribes in Africa, or you are with somebody in the snow in -40 Celsius, and your gear needs electricity. How you do this, I mean, you are living with the people there, but there is no way you can charge your strobes and such.

Jatenipat: for my camera, I prepare at least six or eight batteries and keep in the foil to maximum protect the battery from the winter and for the flash, I have to calculate how many burst that I can do per day. I will to stay at least three night with them and I have to go back to the city to the charge everything

Tom: Okay.

Jatenipat: In winter time, you have no, sometime you have no sunlight that you cannot use the solar cells. I didn't have a solar charging panels before because at that time there is not the technology, but now it’s a lot more easier, because you have a solar charger, you can put it everywhere and you can use all the car, right. You can, you can use the car to charge the battery, but still, I am staying at least three night and then go back to city so that I have some electricity, charging everything, relax, take a shower, and then go back.

Tom: Jatenipat, talk me a bit quick about your exposition. Well, you have your book and you did an exposition called “People and their World”.

Jatenipat: Yes!

Tom: I think you held it in Bangkok and in in Tokyo. Now. Just now?

Jatenipat: Yeah. Yes, yes. I have an exhibition in Tokyo right now, last Monday. But this month they're going to move it to Osaka, to the square in Osaka, because Fuji, they hold this exhibition, they move this exhibition.

But my book, yes, you can search on the internet and buy it there straight away. It's a collection from my photos for over10 years about local people and about the beautiful cultures around the world.

Tom: How was your experience to doing the first time an exhibition? Very nervous about it first I guess!

Jatenipat: Yeah, when I did my first exhibition, I'm really quite nervous because, in Thailand photography is not quite popular as a painting or a sculpting. So cultural photography it is a new thing that not that many people have an exhibition about. It maybe was the first in Thailand who have hold a really, really big photo exhibition like this for the first time. So, I had an exhibition in Bangkok that holds about 600 square meter of a department store. I pay all this, my photos, the people myself. The first one was big because I have to let the people know who I am. Right? But the second time it's more, much more easier. Also because they have their own curator who take care of everything and you just send them the photos.

Tom: For your first exhibition, in Bangkok, how you decided Jatenipat, which pictures you want to hang up, since you did this alone?

Jatenipat: I have to follow a certain line, right? First I start with the eagle hunters and then with a mountain theme, where I paint the wall in the brow color that look like in the desert or old mountains. Then when you move to another room, the theme changes. We have a green room with photos of the people in I Indonesia in the jungle. And then you move another room and you’re going to see the next thing. Also I put a sound everywhere, sounds with their music, their traditional music and I play it in each room to get the ambient and atmosphere. Each room also has a different light, so you are travelling around the world. my exhibition, The last room is about landscapes, I call that one “Creation of the World” exhibition. I put a lot of the landscape photo that I took before there inside.

Tom: Sounds amazing! You even had the ambassador of Mongolia visiting your exhibition?

Jatenipat: Yes, yes. I invited the ambassador of Mongolia to come to the exhibition. And from that exhibition, the media in Thailand they start tto know me and they come to interview me. It's very cool to do. Because at first I'm scared to have an exhibition, right, because it's going to take a lot up money, right? This year I have another exhibition, and right now it's perfect because the gallery they know me now, and they gave me a very, very long time to run my exhibition, and with a really good price. For the opening ceremony I invited ambassadors from another countries, to come to the opening ceremony. I hope it will be successful with the public!

Tom: I am sure it will Jatenipat, keep me informed.

You are a person that did so many things photography-wise, Jatenipat and so many things I want to talk about. But we only have like one hour…because there is also the fund you set up to restore an old monastery you stumbled upon.

Jatenipat: Yes!

Tom: But we don't have time now to talk about this. When you do your next exhibition, I will contact you, we'll talk again and we will have another talk about you, and about all these amazing places you saw.

Jatenipat: Yeah. Yeah. I can show you maybe my exhibition there live with my phone!

Tom: Exactly. We will do this.

Jatenipat: That would be nice.

Tom: Sounds a very good plan,

Jatenipat: Yeah.

Tom: Jatenitpat, what was the most difficult shoot that you ever did?

Jatenipat: Oh, actually, all of them are quite difficult because they have to fix every problem! Many, many problems… maybe taking photos in tribes in Indonesia because it's very, very humid. It's the rain is coming every day, and my camera, after you take a shot, is not working. You have to put it in the rice. I bring my rice, rice to cook for myself, right? But I have to use that rice to put the camera and cover it in the rice to get the humid out every night, every day. So yeah. But the result is good because it’s a very unique of that tribe. And it's very hard to get there, it take a long, long, long, long time. You have to take the boat maybe for six hour from island to island, and then you have to get in a canoe, a wooden small boat and ride along the curved river inside to the middle of the jungle about half a day to be in that village.

And there you have nothing. You have no electricity, no cell phone signal. You have to live with them. You have to eat monkey when they're hunting. But I am lucky because I buy a pig when I went to the market, I buy a live one and we carry it on the boat. And I give that pig as a gift to the leader of the client. And yeah, very happy because today we have pig for dinner. And I made Thai food for them.

Tom: And you bring toys for the kids.

Jatenipat: Yes, yes, of course.

Tom: They must all love you very much there. I can see them all running behind you,

Jatenipat: Yes!

Tom: Jatenipat, let's say a photographer starting out, he wants to go in your footsteps and he wants to make pictures like you make, what advice would you give him?

Jatenipat: So first, I think, every photographer, maybe they're gonna spend much money on the equipment first, right? But for me, if I can go back into my time, I would spend money on the trip and experience first, because you can learn everything from the real real situation that you encounter. How to talk to the people, the way to get into the people. It’s the hard thing that the camera, even the good one, cannot help you on this. You have to travel and learn a lot. And the people, the local people, you have to give them respect.. If they say no, you should not do it. You have to respect them and know what they believe, maybe have some open mind and maybe some trick to get them open their mind. Very easy. That the first

And maybe for the second thing, I think you will have to, after you go to a place, like you have to find your own technique. Things like composition. You can learn it from others right? But, you have to adapt it yourself the way that you can show that look like is your own signature. And after that, when you come back home you can learn to edit the color and mood and tone from the other photographer who you love that tone. But in the end, you have to have your own tone, your own unique color that people can see and they know, oh, this one is from you, not that from one another guy.

I mean that you have to do it your own way that so that people will know you, that who you are, and this is your photo.

You understand?

Tom: Yeah, yeah. And it's great advice.

Your work, through all the years you shoot pictures, Jatenipat, you feel yourself that your style has changed?

Jatenipat: Yeah. Yes. It has changed. And after now I look back to my old, work from before, I think sometimes I should edit it again. Because you grow up, you'll change your style. And at first maybe you want some very, very vibrant brown color. Really strong color, very contrasty color. But maybe when you grow up as a photographer, maybe you love a really soft tone, with not that much contrast, right? For me, I still, I think I still have to learn it and still have to approve my work. I don't want my work to see only short time. As my work I do about the people and cultures, I want my photo to be a testimony of the tribe. So I want my photo, you can watch long as you can. Like a painting, which is good that you can watch is very long time. They are classic. I want my photo to look classic. Make it a timeless piece.

Tom: You ever had a moment that, you know, young people nowadays, I think they, don't wear so much traditional dresses anymore. They will go to more Western clothe. But then you bring back these pictures and you show them that what their ancestors wear, it's beautiful. You had ever a moment, that these young generation told you, that it's beautiful what their culture wore?

Jatenipat: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I got the message from the new generation who live in the north and in the border between Thailand and Burma. I got a message from the new generation who live in the city and they see my work, and they message me, not, only one, many, many, many, many, many people they message me, to thank me to show the beauty of their own culture and their traditional clothes, things that are very, very beautiful. And, because they are, like I told you before, I think they are shy if they wear these clothes like this, but right now they are very happy and they should be proud of this. And that's very motivate me and really help me a lot to do more projects about this because it's more than money or more than the prize that I got. Right, because your photo is not just showing it to the world or just go to a competition. A photo can heal, can change people and can preserve.

Tom: Those are very wise words.

Jatenipat: Yes. Thank you.

Tom: To end this interview today, let's do a quick round of more fun questions maybe Jatenipat. You don’t have to think too much, just answer what comes to mind.

Jatenipat: Okay.

Tom: What's your favorite Thai dish you cook for your friends?

Jatenipat: Oh I think it is Pad Kra Pao… Holy basil pork. Yes.

Tom: Holy basil pork.

Jatenipat: Yeah.

Tom: Okay. I'm writing this down for the day I come to Bangkok.

What Jatenipat is the name of your horse in Mongolia?

Jatenipat: My horse is BeKo.

Tom: Beko…He is a fast horse?

Jatenipat: Ah, yes, yes, yes.

Tom: You will be a good eagle hunter then.

Jatenipat: I think so, haha.

Tom: Is there any unusual gift they, a tribe, ever gave you? 

Jatenipat: Let me think…I got a knife that made from reindeer horn, the traditional one. They give it to me. And the eagle hunters, they give me a hat made from fox skin, like what they use, and a coat. Yes. I always ask them for some local things, some local product. In Papua, they give me a mask.

Tom: It had been good if you had put it on now, it had been great for the YouTube version.

Jatenipat: Oh! But not here right now! I'm sorry. But I got here the arrow to hunt from Papua, here, in this room.

Tom: Jatenipat, what you do when you put down your camera, what you like to do?

Jatenipat: I will enjoy my time with my kid. I have one son. His name is Nepal. Yes. I always like to spend my time with him and I want him to be happy with his life, right? Because I name him Nepal because it means ‘never ending peace and love’. I want him to learn and enjoy, to love his life and find his own way, not like me.

I just find myself when I get out of university and what I love to do really. I want him to find what he love to do and I will give him freedom, what he want to do. So I will take him to travel with me in many, many places and enjoy with the nature.

Tom: And you know he's going to be a better travel photographer than you,

Jatenipat: I hope so! Haha.

Tom: Jatenipat, I think we are there. We had an amazing talk. I think it goes already over one hour,

I really like to talk to you. I like to hear your stories. I like very much of course your pictures, they open a whole new world, ot only for me, but I think for many people that look at your photos.

Jatenipat: I'll be looking forward to see you in Thailand!

Tom: Yes! And then you will prepare me your holy basil pork.

Jatenipat: Yes! I will give you my book too, with my signature. It's a gift.

Tom: Okay? That is a promise.

Jatenipat: Yeah.

Tom: Okay, Jatenipat, thanks for the talk and I see you soon. Bye.

Jatenipat: Yeah. Thank you. Bye-Bye.

Tom: Bye.

Outro:​

And that’s a wrap on our conversation with Jatenipat Ketpradit! His approach to cultural storytelling, portrait photography, and respecting traditions is truly inspiring.

From sleeping in the tents of reindeer herders to tracking eagle hunters in Mongolia, Jatenipat’s work is more than photography—it’s a bridge between worlds, capturing stories that would otherwise remain unseen.

If you want to see more of Jatenipat’s incredible images, check out our shownotes and his website at jatenipatketpradit.com.

As always folks, if you enjoyed this episode, you can help us out buying us a coffee, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter on our website, leave a review on Spotify or Apple podcasts, and share this episode with fellow photographers and travelers. It all helps moving our show and the work going into it, forwards.

Thanks for listening, now go out and move your own photography…I see you next week for another great episode of the Camera Café Show…adios!