WATER is a photobook that explores the transformation of Suphan Buri’s landscape through the story of "water"—as an element managed, controlled, and engineered to serve agricultural production, economic systems, and political power.

Following the signing of the Bowring Treaty with Britain in 1855, Siam transitioned into a free-trade economy, with rice emerging as a major commodity. Canals, water gates, and irrigation systems were systematically developed to support both production and transportation. This shifted the landscape from a nature-dependent environment into a structured management system—one that has profoundly impacted ecosystems, local economies, ways of life, and culture up to the present day.

This book traces the remnants of these historical infrastructures through contemporary photographs of Suphan Buri, capturing canals, rice mills, agricultural lands, and artifacts left behind by past waterways.

Inspired by the survey photographs of Robert Larimore Pendleton, who documented the Tha Chin River basin during 1936 and 1940.

WATER is part of the project "Water, Fields, Rice Mill" (น้ำ นา โรงสี).

Exhibited in LOCAL MYTHS #2: Shifting Terrains (ดินแดนในรอยต่อ)

At the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC), 2026

WATERChalit Saphaphak

Published by Kheansang

First edition, 2026 

Edition of 50 copies

Size 15 × 20 cm96 pages

68 color film photographs

Hardcover