Cambodian photographers: a new generation is developing for the better

Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 09/04/2009. Co-founders of Stiev Selepak (Art Rebels) in front of Sa Sa gallery. (Photo: Vandy Rattana)

10-04-2009
By Corinne Callebaut
Ka-set

Yesterday for Cambodians, photography was only embodied by those who wander around in parks with a camera and look for weddings here or families there, willing to have their picture taken. But today, mindsets have started to evolve and photojournalism, just like art photography, is beginning to emerge in the country. Highly encouraged in the 1990s by foreign photographers, Cambodians now seem to want to try out their wings, without however forgetting their history.

“For Cambodians, photography that is other than what is directly useful, like family pictures, does not exist”, says Chan Vitharin, who works at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. “Sometimes, my family still ask me to take pictures for great occasions like weddings or births”, says Mak Remissa, one of the rare Cambodian photographers who is represented in international news agencies. “They do not understand the reality of my work.” And indeed, snapshots of Cambodia circulating around the world are most of the time the deed of Westerners who then show them in their own countries, in museums or in the media.

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