Angkor photo festival returns to Siem Reap’s Iconic Hotel De La Paix

Monday, 31 October 2011
Source: Hôtel de la Paix

From 3 November to 8 December 2011, Siem Reap’s renowned Hôtel de la Paix will host a dual exhibition as part of the Angkor Photo Festival, infusing many of the hotel’s public areas with some of Cambodia’s finest contemporary art. The exhibition will encompass the hotel’s pioneering Arts Lounge, where ‘Water is Life’ by MAK Remissa, one of Cambodia’s most celebrated photographers, will be displayed; as well as its recently-opened Thev Gallery and the courtyard Fire Garden, where acclaimed photographer and former pupil of Remissa, SOVAN Philong, will show his collection ‘Crickets’. The two collections provide very different yet complementary insights into aspects of Cambodian life and environment.

Running from 19 – 26 November, the hotly-anticipated Angkor Photo Festival will bring together influential photographers from around the world, showcasing print exhibitions and outdoor projections, and aims to highlight emerging talents from South East Asia. The festival sets itself apart due to its strong humanitarian objectives, including free workshops - tutored by renowned artists – for emerging Asian photographers; and photo workshops at Anjali House, an NGO which provides refuge, care and education for underprivileged children in the city.

7th Angkor photo festival

REPUBLICA

KATHMANDU, April 17: Angkor Photo Festival, the first platform for photography in Southeast Asia, has opened submissions for the seventh festival scheduled to be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from November 19 to 26.

“Through this program, the Festival guides emerging photographers in developing the skills to better document their own societies, understand universal ethical and professional standards, and eventually create a vibrant photographic network across Asia,” states the website, photographyforchange.net.

The website further states, “Consistent with the festival’s mission of highlighting emerging Southeast Asian photographers, of the 110 photographers exhibiting in 2010, fifty were from Asia.

Former Courier & Press photographer released from Cambodian prison

Go Takayama

December 7, 2010
Evansville Courier and Press

Photojournalist Go Takayama, 28, a former Courier & Press intern who had been held in a Cambodian jail since Nov. 23 on charges that he was producing pornographic pictures has been released after a provincial court acquitted him of all charges.

The development comes after a high-ranking Cambodian government minister spoke out on the photographer’s behalf.

Cambodian Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith, a former newspaper editor who has been jailed in the past, told News Photographer magazine he was convinced of Takayama’s innocence and that he was sending a formal letter to the court requesting his release.

Takayama worked for the Courier & Press in 2008.

Provincial Prosecutor Ty Soveinthal told The Phnom Penh Post this week that Kanharith had intervened on Takayama’s behalf, and the photographer and the married couple who were arrested along with Takayama would be released.

At a hearing this morning, Judge Sok Leng said that based on the evidence and statements, Takayama and the married couple he was photographing, who also were arrested, were not guilty of pornography charges. The judge also said Takayama would receive his camera, memory card, and the photographs back from police.

“We have found his mistake was very minor,” Soveinthal told the newspaper, “and he was supported by His Excellency Khieu Kanharith.” Cambodia’s Minister of Information told the Post he had received many messages from Cambodian journalists trained in the U.S. who affirmed Takayama’s innocence. “I also checked his blog and understood the nature of his art,” Kanharith said.

“I have concluded my investigation of the Japanese photographer, and I think his punishment should be very minor and he should not be jailed in Cambodia,” Soveinthal told the newspaper.

“The court gave us justice today,” Takayama’s lawyer, Sourng Sophea, said after the photographer’s release.

Kanharith’s interest in Takayama’s case most likely had a significant impact on the court’s view of the photographer’s actions. The high-ranking Cambodian Minister had been imprisoned himself in 1990 when he was suspected of “dissident activities,” but in 1991 Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen asked Kanharith to serve as his adviser and in 1992 the former journalist was promoted to Minister of Information.

Takayama had been jailed in Siem Reap after taking pictures for a story he was working while participating in the Angkor Photo Workshops.

After photographing a married couple inside a home Nov. 23, Takayama was stopped on the street by plainclothes police officers, Angkor Photo Workshop organizer Jessica Lim told News Photographer magazine.

The police confiscated his camera along with 78 photographs from his memory card, which were admitted as evidence in an accusation charging Takayama with producing pornographic content. He had been under arrest and in prison since that night.

Lim said the photographs were not pornographic. “They depict a married couple hugging and holding each other. Although there was never any nudity, the man had his shirt off and halfway through the shoot the woman took her blouse off as well. The man had on shorts and the woman had on trousers throughout the entire shoot and there was no explicit sexual activity.”

Japanese photojournalist acquitted of pornography charges

Dec 7, 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - A court on Tuesday dismissed pornography charges against a Japanese photojournalist and the couple he had photographed on an assignment in the tourist city of Siem Reap.

Go Takayama, 28, a participant in a workshop at the Angkor Photo Festival, was arrested in late November and charged last week.

The court prosecutor told local media that Takayama had been charged with pornography after police accused him of taking dozens of images of sex workers at a brothel.

Jessica Lim, who helped coordinate the festival, said the police allegations were untrue and stressed that the married Cambodian couple in his images had consented to be photographed and there was no nudity in his photos.

Lim said festival organizers welcomed Takayama's acquittal.

'We have always known Go Takayama was innocent, and so we are very relieved at the court's decision,' she said.

Lim said Takayama and the couple had been taken back to prison from court while their release paperwork was processed and would be freed Wednesday.

His plight drew criticism from media organizations inside and outside Cambodia.

The Overseas Press Club of Cambodia on Monday released a statement expressing its concern at the arrests, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, a US-based organization that promotes press freedom, said the government should drop the charges against him.

Takayama had faced up to one year in prison if found guilty.

The photographs were taken as part of his involvement in a workshop at the week-long festival, which closed November 27.

Photo project opening eyes worldwide

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
By Samantha Sommer
Staff Writer
Springfield News-Sun (Springfield, Ohio, USA)

SPRINGFIELD — Eyes Wide Open Worldwide continues to take its name to heart.

Ty Fischer, founder of the Springfield-based children's photography program, is in Cambodia, returning there for the Angkor Photography Festival.

"We hope to continue to inspire Cambodian children in the arts through photography, while raising awareness of their environment through our exhibits," Fischer said in an e-mail from the Asian country.

He traveled there last year as well and worked with children from villages, giving them cameras to photograph their daily lives.

An exhibit of their photos in Springfield raised $1,300, which Fischer brought to Cambodia and donated to the Anjoli Center. It works with the festival and street children, teaching their native language of Khmer, English, photography and dance.

This year Fischer is working with children from the Tonle Sap region, a large lake where entire villages float on the water.

Eyes Wide Open Worldwide will exhibit their photos there, possibly in April.

"We will be working with children having them document their life on the lake and bringing this exhibit back to the U.S. to raise awareness about this very unique life," Fischer said.

The next step for the organization is to connect Cambodian and U.S. children through letters, photos and e-mail.

"So children can share their differences and similarities of their life and environment," Fischer said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0363 or ssommer@coxohio.com.