In 2008, it was at the initiative of the French Cultural Center, now the French Institute of Cambodge (IFC), that the festival was born. Photo Phnom Penh. Alain Arnaudet, who was then the director and had already launched a dance festival, a street music festival or theatrical activities, had received two young people who wanted to exhibit their photographs in an establishment which was not yet equipped as such. he is today. Sensitive to the issues that were emerging around images and aware of the fact that there was no structure in the country giving access to or training in photography, he decided to create an annual festival dedicated to it.
We very quickly defined the axes: exchanges between Asian cultures and those of the rest of the world, in particular Europe, presentation without favoring a style or school of contemporary practices of photography, showing authors and artists from all origins and aesthetics and thus help the emergence of contemporary Cambodian photography.
The first year, it was difficult to find four Cambodians whose work could be exhibited and the vast majority of the public was made up of expatriates. During the tenth edition, we were able to exhibit ten well-dressed Cambodian photographers on the large wall of the French embassy, we screened twenty-five of them during the opening evening, the public was already very largely Cambodian, more than a hundred volunteers enabled the event to take place, the small structure of Studio Image worked to initiate and train young photographers within the IFC who naturally found their place in subsequent editions. Bet won, then. Thanks first of all to the trust and participation of the artists.
For two years, in addition to the usual programming, we have added a focus on a “guest country”. After Switzerland and Taiwan, this fifteenth edition will welcome France which, since the beginning has been the faithful support of the event thanks to the French Institute, Paris and Phnom Penh. By Christine Spengler at the Sosoro Museum on the occasion of fifty years of historical photography that she produced during the first bombing of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge in 1974 to the research linking photography, science and fiction by Vincent Fournier occupy the wall of the From the French embassy to the proposals with contrasting aesthetics from Jean-François Spricigo and Aglaé Bory in the field of documentaries, among others, France is therefore in the spotlight. With new Cambodian authors like Ly Sovanna at the Bophana center, a loyal partner since day one, or Ourng Sam Ang at the IFC and the Vietnamese artist Chiron Dong, dialogue is established as it does every year between the two continents.
A generous birthday present, a collective exhibition in the IFC gallery brings together sixty artists who have already participated in Photo Phnom Penh and who are offering us new works, some of which are on video. Diversity again with signatures from all over the world, radically different stylistic proposals, from documentary as well as narration, from testimony as well as dreams. A panorama of photography today and a beautiful presence of what can now be considered as a new school of Cambodian photography. A development which has been, since the beginning of the festival, helped and supported by the local delegation of the European Union.
This fifteenth edition coincides with an important event, the opening, finally, of a training and professionalization structure in photography and images. Taking up the title of Studio Images, it is thanks to the support of the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency (SDC) that this independent structure which establishes links with other establishments in the world and among others with the National School Superior Photography of Arles is born. Active since September, it has benefited from the support of the festival's traditional partners, the French Institute, the European Union, Cambodia Airports and Cambodia Living Arts as well as private partners for its first year of existence. And she must prepare and build her future.
Happy birthday Photo Phnom Penh, happy festival and let's look to tomorrow.
Christian Caujolle
www.photophnompenh.com
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