AsiaLIFE

The end of this month marks the first Photo Phnom Penh Festival organised by the French Cultural Centre (Nov. 29 to Dec. 7). The works of international and local photographers will be projected on the walls of Wat Bothum, running parallel to a series of 13 different exhibitions. Cambodia is a country rich with photo opportunities from grinning children, saffron-robbed monks to over-laden motos. In many respects the lure to photographers, both established and novice, is clear. AsiaLIFE takes this opportunity to talk with some international photographers who have chosen to make Phnom Penh their own. By Mark Jackson.

“Cambodia lends itself very naturally to photographic opportunities, I often hear my new arrivals gasping: ‘wow, there’s a photograph everywhere you look’ and they are right,” says Nathan Horton of Cambodia’s unique photographic appeal. Nathan runs photographic tours throughout the country. “Cambodia’s streets and waterways are an endless procession of characters getting on with life, working, clambering on vehicles, hanging out in cafés, buying fish in markets and praying to their gods.”

It’s a view shared by most photographers who have chosen to make Cambodia their home – regardless of how long they have been in the country. Joe Garrison first came to the country in 2000, before settling here the following year. For him the inspiration comes from the people. “The things they do, the way they do them, the lives they live, the hassles they overcome,” he says. “All of these things combine to present hundreds of interesting photo opportunities every single day.”

A relatively recent arrival to the country, Virginie Noel derives artistic inspiration from the quintessential unpredictability of life here. “The visual stimulation from everything that goes on, the messiness, the chaos, the randomness of it all – it feels real and alive,” she explains. Whatever the reason for settling, Cambodia is drawing an increasing number of photographers, both experienced and green, leading to an apparent over-saturation of the market, according to many.

Photographer with a Cause

All agree that it is the people that make this country special. Not just in the photo opportunities that they afford, but in their openness to being photographed.

“It takes just the smallest of introductions to be allowed to photograph,” says Magnum photographer John Vink.

“There is very little suspicion as to what I am doing.”

John is in an unrivalled position to talk about being a foreign photographer in the country. A professional photographer since 1972, he first came here in 1989, working in the refugee camps along the Thai border, before settling in the country in 2000.

A photographer with a strong sense of social justice, he has been working on land issues in the country for the past nine years. He believes there is an openness in the country that gives him access to much more than would be possible in many other countries.

“They [social issues] are crystal clear here,” he explains. “They are brutally exposed.” This allows him to reflect on similar issues in the West. “They help me unravel the mechanisms of social injustice which take place in more developed countries.” Having researched and documented social issues within a developing context, John plans to use this knowledge upon his return to his native Belgium next year “to work on the disintegration of my country.”

From Fashion to Panorama

Like John, Paul Stewart was an experienced photographer long before he settled in Cambodia. After finishing his photographic studies in Edinburgh, Scotland in the mid-80s, he spent twelve years working in London. “I wanted to be a ‘fashion’ photographer and assisted many photographers,” he explains. His chosen career path coincided with an explosion in style magazines at the time, and he worked on magazines such as I.D. and Face as well as assisting Trevor Leighton and Robert Erdman on fashion shoots.

“After a brief spell in Paris, the bubble burst for me and I saw fashion as a shallow form of expression,” he explains. “I left for a six-month stint in Transkei, South Africa and rediscovered why I wanted to take pictures.” After an initial visit to the country in 1993, shooting stills on a video documentary on the Tonle Sap, this rediscovery led him to Cambodia. After a spell re-branding U.K. travel company Airtours, Paul returned to Cambodia. “A week or so after I’d left Airtours, September 11 happened and the travel industry went into a massive shock and recession,” he says. “Share prices hit the deck – sound familiar?” 

Now settled in Cambodia, he finds the lure of the river irresistible once more. “I have a global river initiative I started work on after leaving Airtours, that’s why I’m here,” he explains. “My goal is to photograph the entire length of the Mekong in panorama – both in the rainy and dry seasons.” This leads to quizzical looks from Khmers as he stands by the banks of the river with tripod and camera. “I love to hear a shout and then ten pairs of feet slapping the ground and making their way over to me,” he says.

He sees his works as a means of promoting all business sectors along the river by placing the panoramas on his website: www.mouthtosource.net. “The key here is that my work is always online ‘working’ to promote the region or destination it was photographed in.”

As if the goal of capturing the majestic river that dominates the region is not sufficient, Paul sees it as part of a loftier project of “getting a panorama story of all the rivers from the mouth to the source on the entire planet in one portal.”

The Road Less Travelled

In some respects, Nathan Horton’s career mirrored that of Paul’s before he experienced a similar conversion on the road to Damascus. From idealistic art student to fashion and lifestyle photographer, somewhere along the way you sense that Nathan had lost track of why he had chosen to become a photographer in the first place. Then he came to Cambodia in 2005, to shoot a 12-page spread for ‘Food & Travel’ magazine. “Being here rekindled my fire for all of the things I loved about Asia,” he says. It helped that his host ran a tour company. “We became friends and decided that we could work well together to run photography tours.”

For Nathan, the tours encapsulate all that he loves about photography. “A perfect excuse to be out and about with a camera watching life, meeting people and going out of my way to discover new things,” he adds. Currently working on two projects – one a five-day tour with the FCC aimed at regional expats, and the other a trip around the Tonle Sap from Phnom Penh to Battamabang and Siem Reap and back – Nathan is especially proud of the way that his tours make a point of engaging with the local people. “Unfortunately all to often, tourists tend to use a camera as proof they have visited a country, but in truth it’s like eating food with rubber gloves on,” he says. “I try to encourage people to experience first, photograph later.”

Commenting that tourists often use the camera as a barrier between then and the subject, he tells his students to use it as a means of talking with local people. This allows them to get much more out of the experience. “If you engage with the locals you will have a better understanding of them and probably come away with better pictures.”

Cutting their Teeth

So, we have three photographers with vast experience before coming to Cambodia, who have taken quite different roads once they arrived on these shores. Therein lies a further attraction of working as a photographer in the Kingdom – there is a great range of work available. Whether your passion lies with social, environmental, travel, reportage, art or commercial photography, Cambodia has it – in abundance. This makes Cambodia an ideal country for young photographers to cut their teeth.

Peter Harris started as an assistant to a commercial photographer in his native U.S. in the mid-90s. After a stint in computers, he resumed his photographic career in 2005, volunteering for the U.N. World Food Programme. He came to Cambodia in 2007. Like John Vink, he is more driven by photography that deals with social issues. “I prefer to document projects for NGOs – what better place is there to be,” he observes. He wants to have some impact in the time that he has in the country. “My goal is to complete several projects that will bring about some awareness, both locally and internationally, to issues I am currently sensitive to,” he says.

While Peter prefers NGO work, AsiaLIFE photographer Virginie Noel started off with travel and street photography. Having photographed “with a passion” for years, she decided to give herself six months to become a photographer, after the project on which she was the coordinator came to a close. She admits that being in Cambodia at the time of deciding to pursue this new career path was “a bit of a coincidence”.

Although initially drawn to street and travel photography, she now finds this a bit shallow “I like to dig a little deeper, to go beyond first appearances and tell more in-depth stories,” she says. “Once you build a relationship with the subjects of your photographs, it adds another dimension and a whole meaning to the images,” she says nearly echoing Nathan Horton.

Not one to shirk controversy her current project is working with transsexuals across Cambodia. “I aim to give an insight into their lives, through photographs, but also through in-depth interviews,” she says. Once she finishes her project in around six months, she hopes to publish it as a book. “If I manage to achieve this, that’s something I’ll be very proud of.”

Buyers’ Market

With such opportunities, both in terms of photo opportunities and variety of work, quite literally on every doorstep, it is not surprising that the market is increasingly competitive. “Photography has gone bananas as far as a business model is concerned,” says Paul Stewart. “Anyone can take pictures and crucially, publish them too.” He sees this as a profound shift in the profession since the days when he would develop prints in a dark room. “In the old days of film, I would describe photography as a craft.” Not that Paul is a stick-in-the-mud Luddite, admitting that he has not shot film in over ten years. This has led to what many photographers see as an over-saturation of the market.

Joe Garrison is in a good position to comment. The former environmental scientist first came to Cambodia in 2000, before settling here the following year. Initially, he focused on travel photography and photo-documentation before turning to full-time freelance work five years ago. He sees the rapid development of the country as being a double-edged sword.

“It will open a lot of opportunity for things like advertising, journalism and tourism photography,” he says. “But the same development is leading to more and more photographers trying to set up and get established here.” Joe can foresee photographers waging a rate war to get the same contract.

This has always been very much part and parcel of the job, according to Nathan. “The professional world of photography doesn’t allow much space for helping each other,” he says. “Often finding work is harder than doing it. It’s very much a stand up on your own two feet business.” This is something that Irish photographer Connor Wall, who supplies photographs for the Cambodia Daily, has experienced.

“The English newspapers and magazines published in Phnom Penh don’t have big budgets to splash out large amounts on photographs,” he says. Other photographs, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that the Daily can pay as little as US$25 for a cover photograph. This, however, is extravagance compared with the Khmer publications, who pay as little as US$2.50 for a photograph and article, according to Connor.

A former forklift truck driver, who taught himself photography, Connor offers some phlegmatic advice to those wishing to pursue a photographic career in the Kingdom. “Don’t expect to make millions from your work here,” he says. “Instead think of Cambodia as a perfect learning environment.”

New Lens

So, we have an over-saturated market that offers the opportunity for young photographers to become rich with experience if not in money. But does it always have to be this way? Like Joe Garrison, Belgian photographer Isabelle Lesser knows a lot about what it takes to survive as a photographer in the country.

She first came to Cambodia after an “old man” she was photographing for a newspaper in Belgium put her in touch with an NGO in Cambodia, telling her she was made for the country. “Working in Belgium in the middle of winter photographing politicians wasn’t really my thing,” she says. “The old man was right. I am in my sixth year in this country.”

After surviving for so long as a freelance photographer, Isabelle is using this experience to establish Asia Motion – what she claims is the country’s first photography agency. The agency will be launched in an exhibition at Equinox Bar on Street 278 on Dec. 5. It already includes six photographers – Erin Gleeson, Nicolas Axelrod, Peter Harris and Ryan Plummer in Cambodia, Stephane Janin in the U.S. and Srikanth Kolari in India. The unifying theme is their use of Asian photography. “Our main goal is to support Asian photographs outside of Asia,” Isabelle explains. “With so many photographers in Cambodia, it is hard to work out the professionals from the amateurs,” she adds, stressing that the agency stands for quality photography.

Isabelle sees the agency working very much as a cooperative, with photographers still being able to work as freelancers. The only restriction is that they do not sell their photographs to another agency within Cambodia. She hopes that the collective should grow to an optimum of 15 photographers, who will support each other. “The photographers have nothing to lose, just win,” she stresses. Isabelle will personally promote their works, sell them internationally and raise the price paid for photographs within the country.

Pursuing their Passion

If eeking out a living from behind the lens is so tough, why are so many people eager to pursue a career that can be far less glamorous than it first seems, especially when your editor is screaming deadlines at you? The answer is really quite simple. “Combining a passion with employment is something far too many people don’t get the opportunity to do,” observes Joe.

A passion for photography is something that unifies all the photographers interviewed in the course of this article. Cambodia offers the opportunity for those prepared to give it a go to live out their dream, so long as they have a good eye and a half-decent digital camera.

If you feel that you have the same passion for the subject, then maybe you would be best to follow Isabelle’s advice. “Take your chance, Cambodia is full of surprises.” Who knows, maybe in a few years it could be your photograph that is being shown at the Photo Phnom Penh festival?

Paul Stewart
www.mouthtosource.net

Isabelle Lesser
www.isabellelesser.com

Asia Motion
www.asiamotion.net

Joe Garrison
http://www.garrisonphoto.com

John Vink
www.johnvink.com

Connor Wall
http://www.conorwallphoto.com

Nathan Horton
www.nathanhortonphotography.com

Ryan Plummer
http://ryanplummer.com

Virginie Noel
www.virginienoel.be

Peter Harris
www.fotojournalism.net