Photography Thailand Forum

[Stuart Isett]

At the 2005 Angkor Photography Festival the renowned photo agency VII organized a workshop for photographers, run by the award winning photojournalist Gary Knight. Today we introduce the first 10 images of a body of work produced in that workshop by French photographer Vincent Soyez on monks and temples in Siem Reap, Cambodia:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/angkorphotographyfestival/sets/72057594120729330/

Soyez, 44, is a French photographer based in New York. After working more than 10 years in Paris he moved to the United States to work in commercial photography. He shoots fashion, portraits, music album covers and contributes to magazines such as The Source, Zink, Complex, Interview, GQ, ESPN, FHM and Fortune. Recently he started to travel to Cambodia to develop a personal body of work that will be exhibited during the festival.

Stuart Isett

[jerry]

Dont you think Cambodia is well and truly overdone

[Stuart Isett]

"Dont you think Cambodia is well and truly overdone"

How? Please explain how one place, society or people ever gets 'overdone' ? Or do you see the human condition as a product, useful for a time, but then tossed away when no longer of interest?

FYI the people involved in this festival, Cambodian and foreigners alike, have invested a great deal of their lives, time and money to try improve people's lives there. We do not consider the story 'overdone', even if you find it boring. We didn't go there because it was a 'hot' story and have stayed on because of our love of the country and its people.

[Chris Savery]

Indeed - I can't imagine Cambodia ever being overdone except in some crass commercial sense.

I spent 5 weeks there when I first came to asia and loved it. My big regret is that at the time I only had a small pocket camera with me. I'm eager to get back and shoot again with my better camera. The most striking memory I have is of the school girls riding bicycles slowly, gracefully with their uniforms and straight backs. I don't have a good photo of that and I would return just for that. Last time I went the motorcycle was quickly replacing the bicycle and time may be running out.

I personally didn't care much for the photos of Mr. Soyez. They seemed a bit pretentious to me and said little to me of such a fascinating place. IMO.

Chris :)

[jerry]

My time is short so please accept the short response

" Please explain how one place, society or people ever gets 'overdone' "

We do you want to start? USA Iraqi invasion, Vietnam, 9/11,
The Jews from the second world war until present,(they're brilliant with PR as they seem to have a monoploy on misery)

" Or do you see the human condition as a product, useful for a time, but then tossed away when no longer of interest?"

In terms of publishing and in many ways from the view of a director of a company (I'm not by the way)
Of course the human condition is a product, useful for a time and then tossed away when no longer of interest.

Have you ever made money from a photograph from people in ordinary situations as well as those who have felt misery or are in misery?

Photography, whether you like it not, is in many ways for self gratification regardless of who is at the end of the lens being photographed.

As such, dont you think you and most photographers (myself included) are guilty of using the human condition as a product (to be photographed and sold to newspapers,used for PR, magazines,stock agencies or for adverts), useful for a time (depending on the issue and topic), and then tossed away?

Cambodia and its people has suffered dearly.Maybe I'm wrong in mentioning that it has been overdone, but like Thailand, there are so many monks, temples, war shrines, child prostitutes, war criminals, everyday life pics that have been documented that perhaps it is difficult to try and produce images  which are individual, interesting and have significant substance and contribution.

[Stuart Isett]

Well if I was this cynical and had problems with Jews, yeah I guess I'd see your point of view. We're simply trying to give something back.

Stuart