Showing posts with label Cambodia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cambodia. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Maika Elan: The Pink Choice


"I want to show simply how they care and love each other in daily activities."-Maika Elan


According to the web edition of Thanh Nien, an influential newspaper in Vietnam, Maika has changed Vietnams entire conception of what it means to be gay and in love with her seminal work The Pink Choice.
Sensitive and compelling...that's The Pink Choice in two words.
I'm not going to rewrite what has already been written on Maika and her various projects, but I have to mention a couple of things: first off I had written a post on her work two years ago, much before I met her at subsequent photo events, and I ended that post with this:
"In my view, Maika has an extremely bright future in photography."
I was right.
I subsequently met her in Siem Reap where we were both attending the Angkor Photo Festival, and invited her to work with me in planning and setting up my Vietnam Photo Expedition-Workshop, which she did. She helped me during the 15 days of its duration and earned the heartfelt appreciation of all involved.
The Pink Choice will be exhibited from the 15th of November to the 2nd of December at the Goethe Institut, 56 58 Nguyen Thai Hoc, in Hanoi.
Do go see it if you're there!


Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Roger Anis: The First Stone




"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

Roger Anis is a photojournalist at the Egyptian daily newspaper Al Shorouk, and is based in Cairo. He graduated with a degree in Fine Arts, and was awarded a scholarship for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, during whch he attended Hemrik Kastenkov's Storytelling For An Online Audience class.
His project is titled The First Stone, inspired by the passage in the Bible in which Jesus confronts the Pharisees over whether an adulterous woman ought to be stoned.

The project was filmed and photographed in Loi Kroh Road, a well known area in Chiang Mai where bar girls can be seen plying their occupation, providing company (and more) to Western tourists. The story is of Un, a 36 year old bar girl, who agrees to be featured in Roger's project and opens up about her life and her future.

I find it remarkable that Roger was able to gain the trust of Un and others to make this project in such a short time. Filming, photographing and editing this 5 minute movie was made over less than a week...in less than ideal conditions, and under constant pressure. It's a testament to the dedication and perseverance that Roger, and the rest of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop attendees, bring to it...and succeed.

Roger is thinking of smoothing some of the frames in The First Stone, and even translating it to Egyptian Arabic. That would be interesting! I think the title of the project is particularly smart...the perfect title.



Thursday, April 5, 2012

Angkor Photo Festival 2012: Submission Calls




Angkor Photo Festival is calling for submissions with a deadline of May 31, 2012!!!

The festival's 2012 program will present works photographed throughout the world through exhibitions and slideshows in Siem Reap, with no imposed theme.

The submissions guidelines and form contain all the information needed on how to submit work for this years festival.

The festival will be held from December 1- 8, 2012 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The deadline to submit the application is May 31, 2012, and all photographers will receive an answer by the end of July 2012.
Since its inception in 2005, more than 180 young photographers from all over Asia have been selected to participate in the annual free Angkor Photo Workshops. Conducted by renowned international photographers who volunteer their time, the Angkor Photo Workshops provide participants with firsthand training, invaluable exposure and a chance to perfect their art.

Over the years, the workshop has highlighted emerging talent from the region, and many previous participants go on to embark on successful photography careers both regionally and internationally.
I attended the Angkor Photo Festival last November and one of my photo essays The Possessed of Mira Datar was featured at the festival.

I was greatly impressed by the Angkor Photo Festival's evenings at the FCC, and by the quality of the curating. Francoise Callier and Jean-Yves Navel were not only paragons of hospitality, but were instrumental in making a success of the event, along with the assistance of Camille Plante and Jessica Lim.
This is a phenomenal opportunity for all photographers, emerging and established. Submit your work for inclusion in the Angkor Photo Festival. You'll never regret it.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

On The Way To The 7th Angkor Photo Festival


I'll be traveling tomorrow to London for a brief stopover before flying off to Siem Reap via Abu Dhabi and Bangkok. I chose to fly Etihad, the Abu Dhabi airline, from London to Bangkok after hearing it offered an impressive flying experience in terms of comfort and service.

The festival itself is to take place in Siem Reap from November 19 to November 26, 2011. This well established event is the first photography festival held in Southeast Asia and for 2011, will exhibit the work of 110 photographers, out of whom 60 are from Asia.

The 2011 list of exhibiting photographers includes Andrew Biraj, Pep Bonet, Paula Bronstein, Marco Di Lauro, Tewfic El-Sawy, Siddharth Jain, Yuri Koryzev, Liz Loh-Taylor, Wendy Marijnissen, Erica McDonald, Palani Mohan, and many more.



On the subject of Cambodia and Siem Reap, I thought I'd re-mention To Cambodia With Love, a book published by Things Asian, illustrated with my photographs of Siem Reap.

It's described as "With its unique insights into dining, shopping, sightseeing, and culture, To Cambodia With Love is a one-of-a-kind guide for the passionate traveler."

It can be purchased from various online bookstores, and I believe the Siem Reap bookstores have it in stock.

I expect my posts might be irregular whilst traveling, but I'll try my best to update my readers with my gallivanting during the Angkor Photo Festival.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Angkor Photo Festival Program 2011


I take great pleasure in featuring the 7th Angkor Photo Festival Program Preview which is to take place in Siem Reap from November 19 to November 26, 2011. This well established event is the first photography festival held in Southeast Asia and for 2011, will exhibit the work of 110 photographers, out of whom 60 are from Asia.

The 2011 list of exhibiting photographers includes Andrew Biraj, Pep Bonet, Paula Bronstein, Marco Di Lauro, Tewfic El-Sawy, Siddharth Jain, Yuri Koryzev, Liz Loh-Taylor, Wendy Marijnissen, Erica McDonald, Palani Mohan, and many more.

My photographs from the photo essay The Possessed of Hazrat Mira Datar will be screened during the festival.

Angkor Photo Festival will hold 12 exhibitions, 7 evenings of slideshows, free workshops for 30 Asian photographers, and a lot more. It's curated by Francoise Callier in consultation with a 9-member international committee. The program is coordinated by Camille Plante and Jessica Lim.

For the PDF Press Release which also contains sample photographs of the exhibits and screenings, click here.

If you haven't considered attending the Angkor Photo Festival, I encourage you to do so. It's an unmissable photography event.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Angkor Photo Workshops 2011




Now in its 7th year, the free 2011 Angkor Photo Workshops is now officially accepting applications from all young Asian photographers.

To get started, photographers can download and read through the application guidelines and the application form below:
The guidelines and form contains all the information needed on how to apply for this years workshops. However for clarifications and or questions, the Angkor Photo Workshops can be contacted email at angkorworkshop [at] gmail.com .

The workshop will be held from November 17  23, 2011 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. As per the previous years workshops, 30 participants will be selected from amongst the applications received. The deadline to submit the application is July 15, 2011.

Since its inception in 2005, more than 180 young photographers from all over Asia have been selected to participate in the annual free Angkor Photo Workshops. Conducted by renowned international photographers who volunteer their time, the Angkor Photo Workshops provide participants with firsthand training, invaluable exposure and a chance to perfect their art.

Over the years, the workshop has highlighted emerging talent from the region, and many previous participants go on to embark on successful photography careers both regionally and internationally.

I'll be there!!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Beat Presser: Oasis of Silence

Photograph © Beat Presser-All Rights Reserved

When Beat Presser was in late teens, he traveled through Southeast Asia, and met with a car accident in Thailand. Healed from a serious spine injury by monks in a Buddhist monastery, he vowed to do something in return, should he become the photographer he intended to be.

Between 2000 and 2004, he returned to live in Theravada Buddhism monasteries in Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, and photographed the essence of Buddhism. Oasis of Silence is the resulting photographic exhibition and book.

Presser also produced an accompanying website My Oasis of Silence allows participants to post their profile and photographs, and to interact among each other and with Beat Presser, thus creating a growing community and allowing a permanent exchange.

Beat Presser's Buddhism Oasis of Silence is well produced and its background music is haunting, but the B&W photographs are too small to fully appreciate Presser's artistry.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Angkor Photo Festival: Nov 17-28, 2007

The Angkor Photography Festival, the first of its kind in South-East Asia, was created in 2005 by Gary Knight, Christophe Loviny and Jean-Yves Navel. This year, for the third time, the temples of Angkor will become a hub for famous and passionate photographers from across the world.

The festivals program cuts a broad swathe through the world of photography in Asia and plays host to concerned documentary photography and fine art photography. This year, the festival presents this part of the world through the eyes of photographers from Europe (Agns Dherbeys Olivier Fllmi, and Simon Larbalestier among others), from the United States (Stephanie Sinclair, John Stanmeyer, and others), from India (Altaf Qadri, Dar Yasin and Palani Mohan) and many more.

The whole programme for the festival is available here

Angkor Photography Festival website

Saturday, November 3, 2007

WP: Rain in Angkor

Image Copyright © Stephen Brookes-All Rights Reserved

The Washington Post brings us an 'aimed at tourists' slide show feature on Angkor and Siem Reap.

Stephen Brookes went to Cambodia to see the famous temples of Angkor in July at the peak of monsoon season. Seasoned travelers warned him that going during the monsoon rains would be madness and that he would face more than 50 inches of rain, waste his time being stranded in your hotel, and swatting at mosquitoes.

He shares my contrarian idea that the monsoon is the best time to see Cambodia because there are few tourists (comparatively), and the rain rarely lasts more than an hour or two. The rain is usually refreshing, and the landscape turns lush, and colors take on richer hues. During my photo-expedition to Angkor Wat, we avoided the crush of tourists by photographing at the temples and ruins at the break of light, benefiting from cool mornings, and excellent light.

I think that Stephen's assertion that the monsoon season is the only time to go to Cambodia for photographers is somewhat of an exaggeration, however it's certainly a great time to go. I traveled to Laos in August and my experience was similar to his...excellent light, saturated colors and rain that lasted 2-3 hours at most.

The Washington Post insists in prefacing its multimedia shows with hideous advertisements...I bet many people just refuse to watch them, and either miss out on the features altogether, or go catatonic while they play until the feature starts. I just turn off the sound and look elsewhere for 30 seconds.

WP's Gallery: Pray For Rain in Angkor

WP's Article: When It Rains, You Score

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Angkor Photo Festival: Nov 17-28, 2007


A reminder that the third annual Angkor Photography Festival is to be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, for 12 days of photographic events and celebrations from November 17 to 28, 2007.

The festival brings together well-known and passionate photographers from across the world in a spirit of creativity and sharing. It showcases exhibitions and outdoor projections about Asia by renowned artists and photojournalists, while differentiating itself from other events with its strong educational goals.

Participants share their art by leading free workshops for young Asian photographers, and give their time to outreach projects for street children, landmine victims and HIV+ women .

The free workshops run from the 17th to the 24th of November. This year again Philip Jones Griffiths, Patrick de Noirmont, Suthep Kritsanavarin, Antoine d'Agata and Roland Neveu have volunteered to tutor. Marc Brincourt, chief photo editor of Paris-Match, Benoit Gysembergh and Tengku Bahar of AFP will also participate.

For any questions, contact Francoise Callier, Curator of the Angkor Photography Festival at frcallier989(at)gmail(dot)com

Angkor Photo Festival

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Angkor Photography Festival: Update!

From Widows of Angkor Wat-Copyright Tewfic El-Sawy

I've received the following message from Francoise Callier, the curator of the Third Angkor Photography Festival:

The third Angkor Photography Festival will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from November 18 to 28, 2007.

For the program of exhibitions and slideshows, we are looking for work about South and Southeast Asia, China, and the Far East. To facilitate the selection committee's job, work should be uploaded to a (free) flickr account on http://www.flickr.com and the URL sent to my e-mail address, frcallier989(at)gmail(dot)com, accompanied by a clear description of the project and a short biography (maximum 120 words).

We are also accepting finished photographic multi-media pieces that are ready for projection. If available online, please submit a URL link.

The deadline for submitting work is June 15, 2007. The selected photographers will receive an answer during the month of July.

Best regards,

Franc?oise Callier


Instructions to open a flickr account:
To open a free Flickr account you can either go directly to http://www.flickr.com or login with an existing Yahoo account (Flickr is part of Yahoo).

Upload your images at 1024 pixels across or vertical. That way your images will be large enough to view and you will not use up your limited account space.

After you upload: In your preferences (under the menu as 'Your Account'), go to the 'Privacy & Permissions' section and be sure to set your images to 'All rights reserved'. You can also add (c) in your captions field. Flickr will automatically add any caption info from your Photoshop 'File Info' field but you can also change captions after you upload by going to your Flickr page and clicking on the caption box under any given image.

Once your images are uploaded go to the 'organize' section, choose 'Sets' and create a set of images of your submissions. Once that set is created, email the URL of that set (simply copy and paste) to frcallie (at) gmail(dot) com.

After you have opened an account, visit the Angkor Photo Festival flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/angkorphotographyfestival/

click on our icon and make the festival a contact.
--
ANGKOR PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL
Francoise Callier
frcallie (at) gmail(dot) com

Friday, April 13, 2007

Angkor Photography Festival

From Celestial Apsaras-Image Copyright © 2006 Tewfic El-Sawy

The third Angkor Photography Festival will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from November 18th to 28th.

For the program of exhibitions and slide-shows, the organizers are looking for stories about South and South-East Asia, China, India and Far-East Asia. Especially welcome are recent projects, but older or even historical series are not excluded. The work must be accompanied by a clear description of the project plus a short bio (120 words) and complete contact details of the photographer.

The deadline for submitting work is June 15, 2007. The selected photographers will receive an answer during the month of July. To submit your work and for further details, contact Francoise Callier .

Francoise also requested that I add the following information:

The Angkor Photography Festivalis organizing two free workshops for young Asian photographers (under 28 years old), and who must be based in Asia. To apply, send your photographs, a short biography and a text on your work to: Angkor Workshop

The website is: Angkor Photo Festival