I am an independent documentary photographer and visual storyteller working across South and Southeast Asia, with a long-standing focus on social, political, human rights, conflict, and climate-related issues.
Since 1993, I have worked on assignment for international organizations and editorial clients, including GIZ, UN Women, the World Food Programme (WFP), WHO-supported projects in Laos, and Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) in Switzerland. My fieldwork has taken me across Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and the Philippines.
In 2013, I documented humanitarian relief efforts in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines for the World Food Programme. My work has also been exhibited at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT). I was part of the still-photography team behind To Calm the Pig Inside, which was nominated for the World Press Photo Online Video of the Year and received second prize in the 2021 World Press Photo Digital Storytelling Contest in the Long category.
My practice moves between black-and-white and color, digital and analog formats, but remains grounded in the same principles: long-term observation, trust, and place-based storytelling.
I live between Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand, and Don Khon, Champasak, Lao PDR. Over the years, I have developed deep familiarity with Siphandone, the Khone Falls area, and communities along the Lower Mekong. My ongoing work documents fishing families, seasonal labor, river ecologies, and the changing realities of life along one of Southeast Asia’s most important river systems.
Through this long-term engagement, I bring both documentary storytelling experience and deep local access to stories connected to the Mekong, including li fishing sites, fishing households, and community responses to ecological and economic pressure.
Photographer: Piyavit Thongsa-Ard
Between Survival and Passage - Li Fishing and the Future of Migratory Fish in Siphandone, Southern Laos
Kalighat: At the Edge of Being Seen - India, 2003
The Philippines: Life After Typhoon Haiyan
Tonle Sap: Lives Shaped by the Lake - Cambodia
After the Earthquake: Life in Nepal
Bihar: Life at the Brick Kiln - India 2003
The Philippines: Life After Typhoon Haiyan