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

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

 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