A vibrant space for the growth and expansion of Asian photography
As it enters its 14th year, the longest-running international photography event in Southeast Asia is taking big steps into the future with the announcement of new leadership and a renewed focus on its core mission of nurturing Asia’s photographic community.
Created in 2005 by a group of photography professionals who worked extensively in the region, the Angkor Photo Festival & Workshops has evolved to become Southeast Asia’s key gathering hub and educational platform for the region’s photography professionals and students.
Over 330 students from 25 Asian countries have participated in 13 editions of the annual Angkor Photo Workshops, a tuition-free professional workshop for emerging Asian talents. The close-knit community of tutors and alumni which has emerged over the years now plays a leading role in the development of photographic practices in Asia, with many regarding Angkor as their annual meeting space for professional sharing and exchanges. Driving force of the festival, they are involved in a variety of capacities — as tutors, volunteers, curators, and participating photographers in the event’s programme of exhibitions and projections.
For the first time, key members from this community of workshop tutors and alumni have come together to form a new organising committee to lead the annual event, starting in 2018 which will be held in December:
MEMBERS: Kim Hak, Sophal Neak, Roun Ry, Sayon Soun, Sohrab Hura, Sim Chi Yin, Kosuke Okahara, Ian Teh, Andrea Fernandes, Dennese Victoria, Françoise Callier and Jean-Yves Navel.
Non-voting Member: Antoine D’Agata
The 13-member group, half of which comprises of workshop alumni, reflects the natural development that has taken place over the past decade as the organisation works towards becoming a self- sustainable model which is led by members of the Asian photographic community.
As part of its first move, the committee has appointed a new director, Jessica Lim, to lead the event after Jean-Yves Navel, a co-founder of the festival and its director since 2007, stepped down in 2017 while remaining involved as a member of the committee. Jessica Lim began as a volunteer in 2010 and continued working for the festival for seven editions as its coordinator.
“We are immensely grateful to those who gave their time, energy and dedication to create and launch this initiative back in 2005. They had a vision of an empowered community of professionals in Asia, and believed in the necessity of a platform that could bring together aspiring photographers from across the region so as to nurture Asia’s photographic community,“ said Lim.
“One of our long-term aims is help encourage the development of uniquely Asian approaches and perspectives to photography,” said Lim. “We want the conversation to be happening here, being led by people from where we are from. There is certainly more than enough talent in Asia for this to happen. Think of it as a post-colonial response that is very long overdue.”