Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Patcha Kitchaicharoen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Patcha, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
One of the biggest risks I’ve taken was leaving behind a successful photography career in Thailand to start over in the United States.
The funny thing is that this wasn’t the first time I had taken that risk. In 2016, I left Bangkok and moved to New York to attend the International Center of Photography. At the time, I had already built a career in design and photography, but I felt stuck creatively and wanted to challenge myself. Moving to New York meant stepping away from stability, spending my savings, and becoming a student again in my thirties.
After graduating, I returned to Thailand and spent several years building my commercial photography career. Eventually I was fortunate enough to work with many of the country’s leading food and lifestyle brands. I had clients, a network, a team I trusted, and a business that was growing steadily.
Then I made another difficult decision.
In 2023, I moved to Los Angeles on an O-1 visa.
What made the decision scary wasn’t just moving cities—it was moving across the world. I was leaving behind not only my career, but also my language, culture, family, friends, and every professional relationship I had spent years building. I knew I would be entering an industry where almost nobody knew who I was.
Many people dream about living abroad, but far fewer are willing to walk away from something that is already working. From the outside, it probably looked irrational. Why leave a successful career to start over in my late thirties?
The honest answer is that I was curious about what was possible if I pushed myself beyond what was familiar. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering what would have happened if I had tried.
The reality was much harder than I expected. Overnight, I went from being an established photographer to introducing myself to people who had never heard of me. I had to learn a new market, build a new network, understand different ways of working, and prove myself all over again. There were moments when I questioned whether I had made the right decision.
Looking back, I’m grateful I took that risk. It taught me that my career wasn’t built solely on connections or geography. It was built on curiosity, persistence, and the willingness to keep learning. The move pushed me out of my comfort zone and opened opportunities I never could have predicted—from teaching at the International Center of Photography to working with new clients across the United States.
The risk is still unfolding, and I don’t think these kinds of decisions ever come with guarantees. But I’ve learned that growth rarely happens when everything feels safe. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is leave behind what is comfortable, trust yourself, and begin again.
Whether I ultimately spend the rest of my career in the United States or somewhere else, I no longer have to wonder, “What if?” I took the leap. I moved across the world, built a life and career in a country where English isn’t my first language, and proved to myself that I could do it. For me, that’s been one of the greatest rewards of all. If I had never tried, I would have spent the rest of my life wondering whether I was capable of it.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
I’m a Thai food and still-life photographer based in Los Angeles. My work focuses on creating images that make people feel something—whether that’s hunger, curiosity, nostalgia, or simply the desire to pick up a product and experience it for themselves.
My path into photography wasn’t completely straightforward. I originally studied Communication Design and worked in creative fields before discovering that photography allowed me to combine many of the things I love: storytelling, problem-solving, design, food, and making ideas tangible. In 2016, I moved from Bangkok to New York to study at the International Center of Photography, an experience that completely changed the way I think about image-making. After returning to Thailand, I built a commercial photography career working with food, beverage, hospitality, and lifestyle brands. In 2023, I moved to Los Angeles to continue building my career in the United States.
Today, I work with restaurants, food brands, beverage companies, agencies, and publications to create everything from advertising campaigns and packaging imagery to editorial features and social media content. While food photography is often associated with making things look beautiful, I see my role as helping clients communicate who they are. Great food photography isn’t just about showing what’s on the plate—it’s about conveying a brand’s personality, values, and story.
What sets me apart is that I approach photography from multiple perspectives. I think like a designer, a photographer, and often like a customer. Because of that, I tend to ask questions beyond simply “What should this look like?” I’m interested in why a product exists, who it’s for, and how an image can help people connect with it. Sometimes that means creating highly polished commercial imagery, and sometimes it means embracing imperfections that make something feel more human and authentic.
I also genuinely enjoy experimentation. Throughout my career I’ve spent countless hours testing new lighting techniques, creating splash and motion effects, building unusual sets, and finding creative solutions to visual challenges. Some of my favorite projects started as personal experiments before becoming part of my professional work.
Outside of commercial projects, I’m passionate about long-term personal work. One project that is particularly meaningful to me is “Arma,” an ongoing photographic and culinary archive centered around my grandmother, her recipes, and the stories embedded within Thai-Chinese family traditions. Projects like this remind me that photography can preserve more than products or moments—it can preserve culture, memory, and identity.
What I’m most proud of isn’t any single photograph or client. It’s the fact that I’ve been willing to keep starting over, learning, and growing throughout my career. From Thailand to New York and now Los Angeles, each chapter has challenged me in different ways. That willingness to stay curious, take risks, and continue evolving is something I hope people see not only in my work, but in the way I approach life and creativity.
To see more of my commercial work, personal projects, and ongoing adventures in food photography, you can find me at:
Website: www.patchaworkspace.com
Instagram: @patcha221
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
If there’s a mission behind what I do, it’s probably curiosity.
Food has always been more than food to me. It’s how families connect, how traditions get passed down, and how people remember where they come from. Whether I’m working on a commercial campaign or a personal project, I’m interested in the stories behind what I’m photographing.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become increasingly interested in preserving those stories. That’s one of the reasons I started my long-term project, Arma, which documents my grandmother’s recipes and the Thai-Chinese family history connected to them. What began as a personal desire to preserve memories has grown into a broader exploration of culture, tradition, and how food connects generations.
Being Thai and growing up in Asia naturally influences the way I see and photograph the world, but I don’t think of that as my mission. It’s simply part of who I am. Living and working in the United States has actually made me appreciate that perspective even more. Things that once felt ordinary to me now feel unique, and I find myself wanting to document and share them before they disappear.
At the same time, one of the unexpected gifts of moving across the world has been the opportunity to learn about other cultures through food. While my work is deeply influenced by my Thai and Thai-Chinese background, I’m equally fascinated by how different communities use food to tell stories, celebrate milestones, preserve traditions, and bring people together. The more I learn about different food cultures, the more I realize how much we all have in common. The ingredients may be different, but the emotions behind them are often the same. That curiosity continues to inspire both my personal and commercial work.
Over time, I’ve also realized that every chapter of my life has changed the way I see things. Growing up in Thailand, studying in New York, building a career in Bangkok, and then starting over again in Los Angeles have all given me different perspectives. My goal isn’t just to document food or culture, but to bring those experiences into my work. Every project is filtered through my own background, memories, successes, failures, and lessons learned along the way.
I think that’s what makes photography interesting. Two people can photograph the exact same subject and create completely different images because they’re bringing different life experiences to the table. As I continue to grow, travel, and learn from different people and cultures, I hope those experiences continue to shape the stories I tell and the way I tell them.
Ultimately, I want everything I’ve learned from life to show up in my work. My photographs may start with food, but I hope they also carry pieces of my experiences, perspective, curiosity, and the people I’ve met along the way. At the end of the day, I hope my work makes people feel something—whether that’s hunger, nostalgia, curiosity, or a connection to a memory they didn’t even know they had.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
One thing I think non-creatives often struggle to understand is that creative careers rarely feel as stable as they may appear from the outside.
People see the finished photographs, the client list, the awards, or the projects that get published. What they don’t see are the years of experimentation, rejection, problem-solving, and constant learning that happen behind the scenes.
Another misconception is that creative work is driven by inspiration. Inspiration is wonderful when it shows up, but most of the time the work comes from curiosity, discipline, and paying attention to the world around you.
For me, curiosity often starts outside of photography. Sometimes it’s traveling to a new country and noticing ingredients, dishes, colors, or ways of serving food that I’ve never seen before. Other times it’s much simpler—a scene from a movie, a visit to a grocery store, an unusual vegetable, an interesting package design, or a conversation with a chef or a friend. Inspiration can come from almost anywhere if you’re paying attention. Those small moments often stay with me and eventually find their way back into my work, whether as a commercial project, a personal project, or even a test shoot.
As a food photographer, I’ve also learned that understanding food goes far beyond knowing how to photograph it. The more I learn about different cuisines and food cultures, the more valuable that knowledge becomes. Understanding how a dish is made, where it comes from, what it tastes like, and why it’s meaningful to people helps me tell its story more honestly. It also allows me to connect with clients on a deeper level because they can see that my interest goes beyond creating beautiful images. I’m genuinely curious about the world their food comes from.
One thing I’ve learned is that creative careers often require you to start over, adapt, and keep learning, no matter how much experience you have. That’s why staying open to learning is so important. The moment you think you know everything, you stop growing.
What keeps me going is that sense of curiosity. The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know. In many ways, I think that’s the real reward of being creative. It’s not reaching a finish line. It’s staying open, continuing to learn, and allowing those experiences to shape both your work and the way you see the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://patchaworkspace.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patcha221/
Image Credits
Patcha Kitchaicharoen