Angkor Photo Workshop 2016

P articipants of the 2016 Angkor Photo Workshop took their visual storytelling skills to the next level with an intense, two-week, immersive photo workshop in my very own back yard last month. While Cambodia’s eerily gorgeous temples might have been one of the many reasons participants came, they soon discovered that it was the Cambodian people and their stories which were the real treasures of undertaking a photo workshop here in one of the most beautiful and friendly countries in Southeast Asia.

In addition to exploring Angkor’s enduring temples, Phnom Penh’s vibrant street life and Battambang’s French history, this year’s participants had the task and the privilege of documenting, one-on-one, remarkable individuals and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) whose harrowing stories became the basis of their individual photography projects.

During the two-week unique cultural experience, participants simultatiously learned visual storytelling skills and techniques in daily classroom sessions and then immediately applied them to the real life photo documentary projects on which they were working.

This year’s projects included a story on the life and times of a local Tuk Tuk driver, the challenges encountered by a land mine victim who struggles to make a life for himself and his disabled wife, and a reportage on transgender individuals who work at a local “Ladyboy Review, Broadway Show”.

Indeed, this, the 6th Annual Angkor Photo Workshop, was yet another amazing two-weeks of intense photography, exploration, learning, comaraderie and fun.

Below are some images that I was able to snap during this year’s workshop. Enjoy

 

Bayon temple in the rain

 

 

 

Beng Malea

 

 

 

 

Roadside sticky rice vendor

 

along the east wall of Ta Phrom temple

Purification bath near Preah Palilay temple

 

 

Angkor Silk Farm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damaged Devatas, Angkor Wat temple

 

 

 

 

 

Land mine museum