TUTORS & FACILITATORS
2025 Angkor Photo WorkshopsABOUT OUR TUTORS
Since we first began in 2005, a humbling number of talented professional photographers from all over the world have stepped forward to be a part of the Angkor Photo Workshops.
All our tutors share our dedication to providing the region’s emerging photographers with high quality and affordable education; and our belief in fostering autonomy in photographic practice. By coming onboard as volunteers and waiving their professional fees, they also help keep us non-commercial and tuition-free for all participants.
In keeping with our understanding of the importance of diversity and inclusion, our tutors come from a range of backgrounds and artistic approaches. You can view the full list of our all our previous workshop tutors here.
Biographies
Veejay VILLAFRANCA
Philippines
www.veejayvillfranca.com
Veejay Villafranca was born in Manila. He started out in journalism as a staff photographer for the national news magazine covering socio-political events in the Philippines. After becoming a freelancer in 2006, he worked with several international news wire agencies before pursuing the personal projects that later paved the way to his career as a full-time documentary photographer. In 2008, he was awarded the Ian Parry Scholarship and a residency at Visa Pour l’Image for his project on the lives of former gang members in Manila and in 2013 attended the 2013 Joop Swart Masterclass program of the World Press Photo Foundation and later on became a regional judge at the 2023 World Press Photo competition.
Veejay is a visual language and documentary photography lecturer at the Diploma in Visual Journalism at the Asian Center for Journalism and at the Bachelor’s of Photography program at the College of Saint Benilde. He is also an alumnus of the 2006 Angkor Photo Festival Documentary photographer workshop.
Katrin KOENNING
Germany
www.katrinkoenning.com
Katrin Koenning is a photographer based in Naarm Melbourne, on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung country. Her work moves across text, found materials, and still and moving images. She has been recipient of multiple awards and her work is regularly exhibited in local and international solo and group exhibitions.
Antoine D’AGATA
France
www.magnumphotos.com/antoinedagata
Finding himself in New York in 1990, Antoine D’Agata pursued an interest in photography by taking courses at the International Center of Photography, where his teachers included Larry Clark and Nan Goldin. His first books of photographs, De Mala Muerte and Mala Noche, were published in 1998, and the following year Galerie VU’ began distributing his work. In 2001 he published Hometown, and won the Niépce Prize for young photographers. Since then, he continued to publish books regularly. In 2004, D’Agata joined Magnum Photos.
Mien-Thuy TRAN
Vietnam
@may.ushuaia
As a self-taught practitioner, Mien-Thuy is interested in our inner worlds, hidden connections, liberation, life and death. She is on her way to transform herself in photography, speaking for the chaotic shift in our decayed society.
Sean LEE
Singapore
www.seanleephoto.com
Sean Lee was born in 1985 and grew up in Singapore. His first body of work was Shauna, made between 2007 and 2009. This work was nominated for the Prix Découverte on the 40th anniversary of Arles Photography Festival. Since then, Sean has gone on to make other stories.
His second work – “Two People“, received the 2011 ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu award. Sean’s photographs have been exhibited in a number of institutions and festivals. Most notably, the Saatchi Gallery in London and the Chobi Mela Photo Festival in Bangladesh. Much of Sean’s work can be found in the collection of the Singapore Art Museum. Sean’s first book, “Shauna“, was released in September 2014. It was collected by the MoMA Library.
Uma BISTA
Nepal
www.umabista.com
Uma Bista is a visual artist based in Nepal. She uses the camera as a tool to tell visual narratives that focus on social, cultural, environmental, familial, personal, political, and psychological perspectives, on gender inequality and beyond.
Uma is named in the British Journal of Photography’s annual Ones to Watch 2019 and awarded the Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellowship in 2020. She also participates in the South Asia Incubator program (PhotoKTM 2023). Uma has worked as a photojournalist in the daily newspaper since 2011-2021.
Her works are being published and exhibited nationally and internationally, including Growing Like a Tree: Sent A Letter, Breda Photo Festival, Chobi Mela, Photoville, Pen & Brush Gallery, Rubin Museum, The New York Times, Le Monde, The Washington Post, and Caravan Magazine, among others.