It will be wonderful to have both of them here with us in Siem Reap in November. Possessing decades of experience in the photography world, both guest curators also head two of the most popular photography festivals in the world. Bangladeshi photographer, writer and activist Shahidul Alam is the founder and director of Chobi Mela, a biennial international photography festival held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Since 1989, Jean-François Leroy has been the director of Visa pour l’Image, a major photojournalism festival held annually in Perpignan, France.

Each year, the festival dedicates two evenings of its slideshow programme to two well known figures in photography. The festival’s Guest Curators are invited to present a showcase of work and photographers as selected by them.

 “The Angkor Photo Festival has long been on my radar. One of the most significant festivals in the region, it has been a turning point for far too many young photographers to be just another festival. This is my chance to find out why.”

 

“I went to visit Angkor Photo Festival out of curiosity. I had heard many good things about that festival. There, I was struck by the enthusiasm of the young Asian photographers present, and I loved the educational role of the workshops for young Asian photographers. I liked the free nature of it all, and the whole team’s generosity. And so, I wanted to return and to be a part of all of it again!”

You can read our Guest Curators’ biographies on our press release, easily downloaded from our website or the following links:

> English: http://bit.ly/2013GuestCurator_ENG
> French: http://bit.ly/2013GuestCurators_FR

Also, we will be extending the deadline for submissions to the festival till June 30th!

If you haven’t already done so (and why not?), you now have some time to get your work in to this year’s festival.

Click here for more details and the link to our online submission form: bit.ly/2013apfsubmissions

Want to know more? Read about all this and more in our June 2013 Newsletter: http://bit.ly/apfjune2013

We need your help to realise this year’s 9th Anjali Photo Workshop – and any and every amount will be immensely helpful. 

The Anjali Photo Workshops are organised specially for the kids of Anjali House, an NGO providing free food, healthcare and education to underprivileged street kids and their families in Siem Reap. The workshop aims to foster the children’s creativity and to provide them a fun-filled avenue for self-expression and building confidence. 

Over the years, we’ve been lucky to have been able to a part of the children’s wonderful creativity. Those of you who have been to Children’s Day during the festival would have seen just how amazing their photographs are, and how happy and proud they are when they’re shown during the event. 

So please, help us to bring the workshop back to the children again this year – you can view more details on our page on KissKissBankBank. Click! (Plus, we’ve some beautiful gifts for you in return for your generosity!)

> Support the Anjali Photo Workshops! 

The 9th Angkor Photo Festival invites all photographers to submit their work for its 2013 programme.

To find out how to send us your work and to read other updates, have a look at our April 2013 Newsletter here: http://bit.ly/april2013apf

We’re ready, and we can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on!

There’s still plenty of time to plan your trip and to make arrangements to join us here in Siem Reap for the week-long festival.

And for all you photographers who have been asking, we will be launching the 2013 Call for Submissions on April 15th!

To make sure you don’t miss out on our news and updates, you can sign up for our quarterly newsletter or head on over to our brand new Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/AngkorPhotoFestival)!

The new page will give us more ways and tools to keep in touch with all of you. Please do support us by clicking on the little ‘Like’ button - see you over there!

(* If you were a part of our old Facebook Group, please do head on over to the new page as well, as we’ll soon be shutting down the group.)

Preparations for the 9th edition of the Angkor Photo Festival are already underway. We’ll be announcing in the weeks to come more details about applications and submissions for this year’s events. 

In the meantime, for those of you who need a dose of the festival, you can take a look at our 2012 Festival Minutes as well as our 2012 Press & Media Review!

You can download them directly from these links here:

• 2012 Festival Minutes (English): http://bit.ly/14kIx6L
• 2012 Festival Minutes (French): http://bit.ly/10XIP5v
• 2012 Press & Media Review: http://bit.ly/14fPdUz

You can also download them from our website’s Media section.

For our friends currently in Chobi Mela VI in Dhaka, Bangladesh, we hope you enjoyed our showcase of Southeast Asian photography, curated by our programme director Françoise Callier, which was shown during the festival on January 26th. 

If you’re in Kobe, Japan, do pop by to see ‘Labyrinth’- a special group show of six Japanese photographers from Tanto Tempo Gallery, which was first exhibited at the festival and . The show is on at the Theory of Clouds Gallery till 17 Feb, 2013! 

Here are pictures galore from the Closing Night at the FCC Angkor.

The night began with a great free buffet, provided by the FCC Angkor, one of the festival’s most supportive location partners. To Douglas, Sean and their wonderful team – thank you, it wouldn’t have been such a success without your help!

It was a big night too for the participants of the 8th Angkor Photo Workshops! Not only was it a night for them to finally relax and have some fun, it was also a proud moment for them to share their hard work with each other and the public.

After the screening of all the work, we announced the winner of the 2012 Photo Prize!

A big congratulations to Truth Leem, for winning the vote of the independent jury panel that met just that afternoon to decide the winner. Excerpts from her series, Island, can be viewed on the workshops’s blog, along with more information!

For more details, head on over to the Workshop’s Official Blog > apws.wordpress.com

All the wonderful photos you’ve been seeing on the blog are by Montana Rakz, who joined us this year as the festival’s official photographer! Thank you for your hard work, Montana – we know it isn’t easy to have to work while everyone’s having fun!

To all our guests, visitors, friends, partners and sponsors — each year, the festival depends on you for its success. Without your help, participation and support, the 8th Angkor Photo Festival simply wouldn’t be the same.

We bid your farewell for now, but stay in touch! Sign up on for the newsletter (enter your email in the box on the right) so that you’ll be the first to know when submissions open for the… 9th Angkor Photo Festival!

Not only was it the final exhibition opening (not to worry, the exhibitions will continue to run till at least the end of the festival, and in some places, even till next year) – it was also the last showcase presented by one of our invited guest curators.

Last night at the FCC Angkor, we welcomed back Munem Wasif, as our invited guest curator. Munem first came to Siem Reap for as a participant in the 2007 Angkor Photo Workshops. Over the last five years, it has been wonderful to see how the world has sat up and taken notice of his talent.

Tonight, we’ll see you at the FCC Angkor for the second-last evening of slideshows!

As for tomorrow – join us early at the FCC Angkor at 7pm for a free buffet dinner before the last evening of slideshows, the results of the 8th Angkor Photo Workshops, and the announcement of the 2012 Photo Prize for one lucky participant of the workshops!

We shifted back to Wat Athvea Pagoda this year. Although a little out of the way, the beauty of the place certainly makes up for it! Wat Athvea was built in the 12th century during the reign of King Suryavarman II, who also built Angkor Wat. The pagoda is just next to the temple, and is still an active place today.

There was a little more setting-up required at this location, and I’ve posted some pics of our team with our ever-reliable wagon.

As always, Children’s Day means meeting all the children of Anjali House! The kids were treated to a little meal cooked right there at the pagoda itself before the slideshows began! Our sponsor, Pepsi, also made sure the kids had plenty of balloons to entertain themselves with.

Beginning with a special ‘children’s edition’ of the slideshows, this kids from Anjali were then treated to another edition of slideshows by children – but from another country! Conducted by Japanese photographer Eriko Koga (who also had her work shown at our slideshow here), the pictures from the Koyasan Photo Workshops for 10 children from Japan were shared with our Anjai kids.

And just before we screened the results of this year’s 8th Anjali Photo Workshops, all the participants had a special present given to them by each of their tutors – a print of one of their selected images!

Once again, a big thank you to all the tutors of the workshops, Sam Flint, the director of Anjali House, and all the great teachers and staff at Anjali who helped make it a very special two weeks for the kids.

Join us tonight at the E.F.E.O (Ecole Francaise d’Extreme orient)  for the last exhibition opening! Pablo Bartholomew is here with us in Siem Reap, so be sure to come at 6pm to catch the opening of Outside in the Chronicles of a Past Life. 

After that, come down to the FCC Angkor for a special showcase curated by our invited guest curator Munem Wasif!

We continue tomorrow with Portfolio Reviews too – see you at the Festival Center if you’d like your work to be looked at by our panel of great reviewers!

The reviews will run on till the last day of the festival, so just head to the Festival Center from 11am to 1pm to get your work seen by one of our many reviewers. (Reviews are free!)

On Day 4 of the Angkor Photo Festival, we had two exhibitions opening at The 1961 – Andri Tambunan’s Against All Odds and Gali Tibbon’s Journey to the Jerusalem of Africa.

The winner of the 2011 Reminders Project Asian Photographers Grant, Andri Tambunan is here with us in Siem Reap.  Coincidentally, Andri’s work was published on the New York Times Lens Blog just a few days ago! Check it out here: Taking Photos, and Action, in Indonesia

Once again, a big thank you to our partners Celliers d’Asie and Angkor Beer for helping to make the opening a success!

After the opening, we headed FCC Angkor for another evening of slideshows. I’d like to take a little time here to thank the great team at the FCC Angkor that helps us every night – from Douglas Moe to Sean Vanthan and their on-site engineers, our evenings would not be possible without them.

          ’

A big thank you to our partners Angkor Beer and Celliers d’Asie for making the event a great success!

This is the first year we’ve had Angkor Beer on board with us, and we can only hope they’ll become long-term partners of the festival, just like Celliers d’Asie, which has been steadfastly supporting and helping us over the years.

I spoke to Scott McNeil from Celliers d’Asie to ask him a few questions:

- Celliers d’Asie has been such a great friend and supporter of the festival – can you tell me why Celliers d’Asie has such an emphasis on supporting arts and cultural events in Siem Reap? 

“Since being established in 1993, Celliers d’Asie and Cambodia has both grown over the years.  The strength has been from a community that has always supported each other and we are grateful for that!  Supporting community events and preserving forms of art and culture that was almost lost is just one way that Celliers d’Asie is able to give back to a community that we wish to see continually grow for future generations to come!”

- People who haven’t been exposed to the world of wine sometimes find it a little intimidating to enter – do you have any ‘words of wisdom’ for those just starting out? 

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to wine, opening your mind and taste as many wines as you can so that you can develop your own palate! Wine has many characteristics for everyone to enjoy because it’s a living product that changes with every harvest.  The adventure with wine is discovering & finding wines that suits you and allows you to express yourself and share with others.”

Last night at the FCC Angkor we had the first showcase by a duo of invited guest curators — Eddie Marsman and Marco Wiegers from the Netherlands! While Eddie could not join us in Siem Reap, Marco has been in town for quite a few days and is already a familiar face around the Festival Center! A big thank you to both Eddie and Marco for wanting to be a part of our festival!

We’ve also launched our Afternoon Sessions! These are informal events held in the afternoon, and caters specifically to the photographers who are here. There are 2 sections to it this year, and both are held at the Festival Center (Angkor Photo Gallery Cafe).

Portfolio Reviews (11am to 1pm daily) – coordinated by Andrea Star Reese, who’se also conducted reviews

To sign up, come visit the Festival Center and put your name down on the registration sheet. Our portfolio review sessions are FREE, and are conducted by a rotation of several well-known figures in photography who have very kindly volunteered their time and expertise. They include:

• Andrea Star Reese > Andrea Star Reese is a photojournalist/documentary photographer and was a faculty member at The International Center of Photography (ICP). Her work has been exhibited internationally such as at Visa Pour L’Image, the Angkor Photo Festival and the 2009 New York Photo Festival where her work The Urban Cave received Best Social Documentary. Andrea is a 2010 fellow in Photography from the New York Foundation for the Arts. 
• Dirk Claus > The Photoeditor Asia for Stern Magazine in Bangkok, Dirk was also the head of Stern.de photo department. He was previously the head of the Picture International Photoagency in Hamburg. 
• Eliseo Barbara > Managing director of the new photo agency MoST, Eliseo has worked for photo agencies such Grazia Neri, Camera Press and LUZphoto and was also the photo editor at Internazionale magazine.
• Mauro Bedoni > The photo editor of COLORS magazine, Mauro was nominated for picture editor of the year at the Lucie Awards 2011. Prior to joining Colors Magazine, he served as an art, film and music editor for RAINews24, the Italian National TV Broadcasting Service.
• Munem Wasif > One of the festival’s invited guest curators this year, Bangladeshi photographer Munem Wasif began his career as a feature photographer in leading newspapers in Bangladesh. In 2008, he received the F25 Prize from La Fabrica and the Young Reporter Award at the Visa pour l’Image festival. Recently selected as one of 30 emerging photographers by Photo District News, he teaches at Pathshala South Asian Media Academy.
• Pablo Bartholomew > Pablo is a self-taught, Indian photographer. In 1975, he was awarded first prize in the world Press Photo for his series on morphine addicts, and in 1984 he won the world Press Picture of the Year for his image of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. As a photojournalist, he has documented societies in conflict and transition for over 20 years. His work has been widely published and exhibited all over the world. 
• Wang Xi > Wang Xi used to work for local NGOs in China and has curated for a wide range of festivals such as the Angkor Photo Festival, the Singapore International Photo Festival, Chobi Mela (Bangladesh), International Prange Photo Festival (Changsha), and the Ningbo A-la Photo Festival. His work on the Sichuan Earthquake and Beijing Olympics has been widely used in the international media. 
• Marco Wiegers > One of the festival’s invited guest curators this year, Marco Wiegers is a freelance photographer and exhibitions designer based in Groningen, the Netherlands. He works for a wide range of clients, regularly participating in the design of the Noorderlicht photo festival. He teaches photography at USVA, a cultural organization affiliated with the University of Groningen. 
• Mylene Carriere > Working for the National Center for Audiovisuals in Luxembourg, Mylene is also a photo editor and critic for the national newspaper in Luxembourg.  

Artist Sharing Sessions (3-5pm on Dec 5th and 6th) – coordinated by Ying Ang

This will be a casual and free group sharing session, open to anyone with work to show! Look out for Ying, or just enquire at the Festival Center for more details.

TONIGHT:  See you at 6pm at The 1961 for the exhibition opening of Andri Tambunan‘s Against All Odds and Gali Tibbon’s Journey to the Jeruselem of Africa. We’ll then head off to the FCC Angkor for our evening of slideshows, which will begin around 8.30pm.