Light Tells the Story: Exploration of Relationship and Distance in Film Photography

La lumière raconte l’histoire : This project invites students to closely examine the most fundamental concept in photography: light, and how its intensity or absence, its shapes and patterns, create human storytelling and perspective in terms of relationship and distance.

RelationDistance

RelationDistance is a project exploring the photographer’s relationship with their subject through physical distance—that is, being close or far away—and its effects on the feeling of connection, both inside and outside the image. Film photography, being a medium that leans toward process, emphasizes the importance of physical presence and connection. This concept of RelationDistance exists in infinite variations, telling a story about what we see and how we feel and interact with the world. Students who participated in this month-and-a-half-long workshop were invited to explore this concept and present their works to the public.

Educational Reflection

For students who only had experience with digital photography, learning film photography was a step-by-step process: loading the film, mixing chemicals, developing, scanning, and also eagerly awaiting to see their images. Students were provided with a range of basic cameras from fully manual to fully automatic, along with six rolls of film for this six-week course. They learned a mix of theory about documentary practices and hands-on experience with this very tactile and time-consuming medium.

Many students found it difficult to shoot fully manually due to their habits with digital cameras, making numerous mistakes with underexposure, overexposure, and film development, but they nevertheless discovered a new love and joy in the analog process and the beauty of accidents in art. This medium, which forced them to slow down, allowed them to understand more deeply the light passing through their lens and the moment they decided to press the shutter. The limitation of 36 exposures per roll compelled them to be more precise and decisive in their image production.

Rediscovering the Magic of Film

The mission of the film lab is to revive the spirit of film photography within the Khmer photographic community and to inspire a new generation of photographers to slow down, connect, and create with intention. Through this program, young photographers will rediscover the beauty of analog photography, from the click of the shutter to the silent magic of the darkroom. They will learn to capture the soul of a moment on film, develop their own negatives by hand, scan their creations, and print using an enlarger, just like the masters of the past.

It is more than photography: it is about rediscovering patience, craftsmanship, and the joy of seeing an image come to life under a red light where each shot tells a story, and each print carries the artist’s soul.

The Exhibition

The film photography exhibition Light Tells the Story — Distance and Relationship will be held from October 20 to November 10, 2025, with an official opening on Monday, October 20 starting at 6:00 PM at Studio Images - Maison de la Photographie. Through film photography, students explore how light reveals feelings, distance, and connections between people. Free admission!