BLOG.ONPHOTOGRAPHYCAMBODIA.COM

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009-12-31T17:37:00Z

THE BUILDING EXHIBITION!!!

2009-06-09T00:55:00Z

CAMBODIAN PHOTOGRAPHY IN BANGLADESH

2009-03-23T12:52:00Z

SPECIAL BASSAC RIVER KHMER ARCHITECTURE TOUR

2009-03-18T09:42:00Z

BASSAC RIVER FRONT IN PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA BEFORE 2 a.m. 24th OF JANUARY 2009 & AFTER…

2009-01-27T10:48:00Z

Since February 2008 we have been working on the Bassac River Front with a group of young people, most of whom are students of Aziza, a tiny school/community center with a big heart based in the Building see: http://www.villageearth.org/pages/Projects/Cambodia/Index.php

Last year these young people told us, through photographic stories, about living on the , see: https://www.onphotographycambodia.com/Photographic_Art_Project.html

After completing their stories, some of the participants wanted to continue photography, which we have been doing, meeting every month using Aziza as our base.

The Bassac River Front in Phnom Penh it is not only the Building but also Dey Krahorm - an attached community living on a plot of land just under 4 hectares. For almost three decades, hundreds of families have made this area their home. Following its sale to the 7NG company in 2005, however, residents were asked to move. Some did, some sold their houses, some got compensated…

By 24th of January there remained about 150 families, occupying 91 houses, who were still trying to find the way to negotiate to keep their livelihoods in central Phnom Penh and to be properly compensated. But 7NG made its final argument at 2am last Saturday by first blocking one side then bringing in bulldozers, 500 police and 300 supporting workers to raze Dey Krahorm to the ground. Read the full story in Khmer, French or English on www.ka-set.info

OPC members lost their homes as most of the Aziza students have been displaced...

Should you wish to find out more about Aziza and/or contribute to the broken community with never broken spirit please click here http://www.villageearth.org/pages/Projects/Cambodia/Index.php…

Should you wish to find out more about On Photography Cambodia here is our link:

www.onphotograhycambodia.com

With photos taken by the OPC group over the last year, we present our Dey Krahorm before and after…

PHOTOGRAPHS BY:
Chet, Bun Thet, Sy Neyun, Sela, Nathan Horton
&
Maria Stott (using mobile phone camera)

COLLECTED & EDYTED BY:
Siv Chieng and Maria Stott

THERE IS NO WORKSHOP TODAY

2009-01-25T00:22:00Z

THEY HAVE ERASED OUR FRIEND'S HOUSES YESTERDAY

©Maria Stott/24.01.2009/08.30am

Check our blog later for more information

HOW CAN YOU HELP

2008-12-02T07:31:00Z

CORRECTION

2008-12-02T07:06:00Z

Southeastern Globe magazine in the article Altered Images / November 2008, assigned photographic project entitled Cinderella to Chea Meng Heing. He is also OPC member, however not the author of the Cinderella project. Cinderella is a creation of Chan Moniroth – emerging Cambodian photographer introduced to the medium by photographic legend Philip Jones Griffith who discovered her extraordinary talent.

Cinderella (2006) has also nothing to do with split personality as described by The Globe.

Chna in her straight portraits, juxtaposes the surface of physical appearance against inner beauty

Not everything seems the way it looks…

Not everything is the way it looks…

Physical beauty is just a surface…

Cinderella was part of Angkor Photo Festival in 2006, is currently exhibited (till the 7th of December) with Bodega Melon Rouge during Phnom Penh Photo. 32 Sothearos Boulevard and will be presented at Choby Mela V in Bangladesh, an international photographic festival at the end of January 2009.

PRESS

2008-11-06T10:16:00Z

Check out the November issue of the Southeastern Globe magazine, there is a feature on OPC entitled:

Altered Images by Charlie Lancaster

SHOWCASING THE BUILDING PROJECT IN JAVA CAFÉ (invitation only)

2008-11-06T10:02:00Z

OPC CORE GROUP

2008-11-06T09:04:00Z

On October 12th, following interviews with 27 youngsters with whom we collaborated so far as well as few new faces, we selected the core OPC group. The plan was to select 15 of the most committed, but our hearts were bigger then our brains so we invited 24 people to join us. The next stage of the selection process will take part at the end of February 2009.

For now the group has been split into two where each group will take part in monthly half-day workshops/meetings to be conducted alternatively at the Building Aziza school and the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center.

The workshops aim to:

• Encourage participants to explore their own photographic vision, initiate photographic research and conduct their own projects

• Explore different photographic techniques and functions

• Increase awareness of cultural and ethical issues related to photography

• Explore different historical and contemporary photographic perspectives

• Analyse different possibilities of working within photographic industry, both locally and internationally

• Introduce business and financial management topics within photographic industry

Picture by: Nathan Horton

Front row from the left: Chan Mao, Bun Thath, RaChun, Thy Heang, Seng Simouy, Maria Stott, Chen Ry, Chieng
(squatting Ly Thy)
Back row from the right: Ravuth, Pha Lina, Chea Meng Heing(we call him Mo), Chna Moniroth, SoRen, Kosal,
Yos Kosal, Phana, Sok Ieng

DRIK-BAHGLADESH, CHOBI MELA V & CAMBODIAN PHOTOGRAPHERS

2008-11-06T08:58:18Z

Nine Cambodian photographers have been accepted for Choby MelaV Festival in Bangladesh more details about the Festival:

www.chobimela.org

Samples of the work submitted and curatorial statement:

Freedom by nine Cambodian Photographers

This exploration of the notion of Freedom frees the viewer by providing a counterbalance to the clichéd vision of Cambodia as the land of monks, temples, beggars and sex workers that is usually (re)produced by the outside and for the outside.

Created by a group of nine young emerging Cambodian photographers, this body of work presents a diversity of perspectives on the theme of Freedom that takes the viewer on an intimate journey through their lives and minds.

We are being invited to people’s homes, as in the case of Thy Heang’s “Night Stories”, where she explores the interaction between three generations of women in her family including herself. Vandy Rattana removes himself from his “self-portraits” but still let’s us experience his immediate environment in somewhat cinematic way.

Two photographers decided to remark on their childhood. Lina’s black and white faded memories are the only time he remembers experiencing some notion of freedom. In contrast is Chea Meng Heing’s confused sense of freedom of his childhood when work and play have invisible boundaries, as explored from his memories as an orphan.

Chanmao, Chhea and Volak are inspired by the notion of law, social systems and the function of the society, but from different viewpoints. In the “Test”, Chanmao uses street traffic to interpret rules and law as a safety net. Chhea interprets this safety net as being claustrophobic, which blocks human nature from the real freedom in his project “Boxed”. Finally, Volak suggests that humans can create their own freedom by choosing to gather or depart in his photographic dreamscapes.

Both Ravuth and Chna focus on the mind as the notion of freedom and beauty. The only freedom you can experience is in your own mind through silence, as Ravuth portrays in his remarkable black and almost-non-white romantic “Mind” portraits. Chna in her straight portraits juxtaposes and exposes the difference between physical beauty, which can easily be transformed, and inside beauty, which once discovered is never lost. Her “Cinderella” screams to the viewer and the photographer: there is much more to the beggar/post card seller/sex worker than you will ever be able to see…

Choby Mela Festival participants, however, have freedom to glimpse this Cambodian contemporary story. The fact that most of the country’s visual historical material has been destroyed during the Khmer Rouge era makes this group work even more special as it contributes to a new chapter of a future visual archive of Cambodia for Cambodia.

Curated by:
Maria Stott
On Photography Cambodia
Project Founder

WELCOME TO OUR FIRST BLOG & OUR FIRST SHOW

2008-07-17T13:59:00Z