Ten years of humanity in images: Antoine Raab exhibits at the Bophana Center for UNICEF

From June 11 to 26, 2026, the Bophana Center in Phnom Penh hosts a rare photographic exhibition — ten years in the field in Cambodia, distilled into a collection of portraits and everyday scenes by Antoine Raab. An invitation to see what only time reveals.

A meeting point between memory and commitment

There are exhibitions that inform, and others that transform. The one hosted by the Bophana Center starting June 11 belongs to the latter category. Titled “10 — A Decade with UNICEF: Photographic Notes from Cambodia,” it brings together a significant selection of images taken by Antoine Raab over a ten-year collaboration with UNICEF Cambodia — a collaboration the photographer himself described, during CIFF 360 in Kep last May, as ten years of work he is proud of.

The Bophana Center, co-founded by Franco-Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh and Ieu Pannakar, is dedicated to the restoration, preservation, and promotion of Cambodia’s audiovisual heritage. Inaugurated on December 4, 2006, it has since enabled more than 240,000 people to (re)discover previously unseen archives and today serves as an exceptional documentary resource for teachers, researchers, students, and journalists. By hosting this exhibition, the institution reaffirms its role as a key cultural hub in Phnom Penh — a space where archives and contemporary creation intersect.

Cambodia as it was, as it is becoming

For a decade, Antoine Raab has traveled across Cambodia with a precise mission: to document UNICEF’s discreet yet essential work in the field. From provincial classrooms to rural health centers, from water and sanitation facilities to child protection services — the images presented here do not seek spectacle. They seek duration.

What stands out in this approach is the patience it requires. Progress, in Cambodia as elsewhere, cannot be captured in a single moment. It reveals itself in the gap between two images taken ten years apart: a renovated school, a child smiling in a clinic, a functioning water pump where nothing existed before. Cambodia has made remarkable progress in a relatively short time: between 2000 and 2014, both infant and under-five mortality rates declined by more than 70%, while primary school enrollment rose from 82% in 1997 to over 97% in 2017–2018. These are the silent transformations that Antoine Raab has patiently photographed.

Alongside them in the exhibition are the faces of those working behind the scenes: rural teachers, community health workers, social workers. Field actors whose work, essential to improving education quality and building safe and healthy school environments, rarely appears in major development narratives. Raab, however, looks them straight in the eye.

A photographer rooted in his time

Based in Phnom Penh for over ten years, Antoine Raab primarily works in portraiture and reportage for international magazines and private clients. His regular presence at Cambodian cultural festivals — CIFF, CIFF 360 — reflects a commitment that goes beyond commissioned work. He is one of those photographers who, through time and presence, become a memory of the country itself.

In the industry, the market is tightening. Commissions are becoming fewer, and the rise of artificial intelligence is reshaping the field, particularly in commercial photography. Yet authentic photography — grounded in real life and real places — remains, in his view, irreplaceable. It is precisely this conviction that runs through each image in the exhibition.

UNICEF Cambodia: seventy years serving children

Present in Cambodia since 1952, UNICEF works with its partners to provide Cambodian children with access to education, healthcare, nutrition, clean water, sanitation, child protection, and civic participation — with particular attention to the most vulnerable, in disadvantaged rural and urban areas.

The organization’s health and nutrition programs primarily target pregnant women, mothers, newborns, children under five, and adolescents, with a special focus on Cambodia’s northeastern provinces. The 2024–2028 education program is part of UNICEF’s country program and aims to ensure that every child — especially the most disadvantaged, including children with disabilities, ethnic minorities, and those in rural areas — has equitable access to quality education.

This exhibition is, in a sense, its photographic record.

An auction in support of Cambodia’s children

The opening evening, scheduled for Thursday, June 11, 2026, at 6:00 PM at the Bophana Center, will also feature an auction of selected prints. All proceeds will be donated to UNICEF programs in Cambodia. It offers art enthusiasts and collectors an opportunity to combine aesthetic appreciation with a meaningful act of solidarity.

The exhibition runs until June 26, 2026. Free admission.

Bophana Center — 64, Street 200, Phnom Penh. Open Monday to Friday, 8:00–12:00 and 14:00–18:00.