On Charoen Krung Road in Bangkok's Bang Rak district, a small gallery is doing more than hanging pictures. C. Pappa is currently showing "When Images Speak" by Prof Nantawat Boramanand, a retired dean of law at Chulalongkorn University who has turned his photography into a fundraising machine for cochlear implant surgeries. Every photo on the walls is for sale, and 100% of the proceeds go to the Foundation for the Deaf under the Royal Patronage of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, The Queen Mother — no gallery commission, no expenses deducted.
The numbers give the project real weight. Each cochlear implant operation costs about 550,000 baht, which puts it far beyond most families who receive a diagnosis of childhood hearing loss. Nantawat has already raised 26 million baht through previous shows, funding surgery for 25 children, and the foundation reports 50 children have now undergone the procedure through its wider fundraising. This year he hopes to raise 5.5 million baht — the foundation has requested 2.55 million, enough for five more children — topped up by a boxed postcard set of royal illustrations priced at 1,000 baht per set, with full sales funding four further operations.
The current exhibition mixes Nantawat's black-and-white photographs — many shot on his travels around Thailand and overseas — with work from guest artists, including HRH Princess Chulalongkorn Borirak毫, plus a set of 21 illustrations depicting kings of the Chakri dynasty and the royal family, drawn with a deliberately minimal number of pencil strokes. The gallery itself has a story: it occupies the site of his grandfather's first tobacco shop, established in 1907, and he says founding it feels like bringing the family name home.
For visitors, the show is genuinely welcoming rather than precious. The exterior looks sleek and modern while the interior is designed as a cosy space with soft seating; the 1st floor shop carries art books from his overseas trips and his own audiobook, and floors two and three hold the photographs. Prints unsold after a show go into storage to make room for new work, so each visit offers something different. It sits opposite the Central Post Office on Charoen Krung, Bangkok's oldest road, making it an easy stop on any wander through the neighbourhood's galleries, cafés and riverside streets.
Why should a traveller care? Because this is sightseeing that does something. Buying a single photograph or postcard set here directly funds a child's ability to hear spoken words of love from their family — the artist collaborator LM Chirathorn puts it exactly that way. It's also a window into a grassroots side of Bangkok's art scene, where a passionate retired academic uses exhibitions like his earlier "The Tale Of Two Cities", "Photographed Last Year By Nantawat" and "The Sound In Silence" to blend art, memory and charity. Entry is free, browsing is encouraged, and the cause is one of the more moving you'll encounter in the Thai capital.
