15e Phnom Penh Photo Festival: Discover Soun Sayon, Cambodian poet of Black and White

Soun Sayon will unveil his last series Friday 22 November 2024 during the inauguration of the Studio Images House of Photography at the Institut Français du Cambodge. A series simply named ''Black & White ''.

In Cambodia, few photographers work or haveworked in black and white, first of all because, when there was only filmimage, amateurs as well as professionals moved on to color and that, little bylittle, there were no more technical possibilities to develop and print blackand white. Then digital became established with-it specific color, which is notalways the same as that of color film, among others in green.

But for Soun Sayon, who is above all a passionate amateur of photography, it is and must be in black and white. He studied architecture andit is now his profession, the image being a pleasure that he practices (likefishing) in his rare moments of leisure.

We find the architect in his exploration of the city at night,documentary but not descriptive, quite mysterious, very contrasted, playingwith shadows and lights framing the structures and showing some people appearin silhouette.

The one who was introduced to photography in 2008 inBattambang with the Phare Ponleu Selpak association, then by following thecourses organized by the Photo Phnom Penh festival and the French Institute ofCambodia, has developed a series of portraits linked to his activity. As hefrequently goes to the construction sites he is in charge of, he asked workersto pose for him. His series of portraits taken with a view camera was exhibitedat Photo Phnom Penh in 2017 but he is showing for the first time other of hisportraits, in square format or taken with the fragile and delicate Polaroidfilm with negative.

Source: Phnom Penh Photo Festival