Thai education extends beyond schools, teachers, and exams. Tutoring institutions, though seemingly outside the formal system, remain deeply intertwined with it. This paradox shapes everyday life and reflects broader inequalities in access to future opportunities.

Since 2017, Sirawit Kuwawattananont’s long-term photographic project Examination has explored this phenomenon. As both a physics tutor and photographer, he acts as both participant and observer, capturing tutoring sessions, exam pressures, and the personal lives of students, parents, and tutors; revealing the dynamics that define Thailand’s tutoring culture.

Sirawit’s process mirrors the act of taking an exam: each photograph poses a question, each response an evaluation within limited choices. The results may be right, wrong, or ambiguously both. Ultimately, the work invites viewers to reflect on whether one can truly grasp the “life lessons” embedded in Thailand’s education system.

Sirawit Kuwawattananont is a photographer and physics tutor whose works have received awards and been exhibited both in Thailand and abroad. His photographic projects explore transformations within social contexts, reflecting the intertwined lives of those around him as well as his own. “Examination” is his first solo exhibition at Kathmandu Photo Gallery.