My Beloved

Cambodia is much more than the conventional images of Angkor Wat and the Khmer Rouge regime held by many. “My Beloved” is my photographic response to these preconceived ideas. This is where I was born and raised.  It is the land that gives me life and it is rich in art and culture, beautiful people and abundant nature.

For seven years starting in 2003, before devoting myself entirely to photography, I traveled across Cambodia while working in the travel industry. This included two years with the archeological team of the Apsara National Authority at the Angkor complex and also five years at a travel agency in Phnom Penh. This knowledge of the country was invaluable when, in 2012, I undertook personal journeys, both solo and with some close friends and family, all across the country to photograph the diversity as well as the landscapes along the Mekong River, the capital city Phnom Penh, around the great Tonle Sap Lake, and down south to the sea and coastal provinces. I found a universal and gentle beauty created by nature, by human activities and by the flow of time in Cambodia’s ever-changing landscapes. Since the beginning of my work on this project, I decided to photograph only in the early morning hours to have soft lighting, while also considering the dawn as symbolic of the beginning of a new image of Cambodia. This subjective travel album is always framed with extreme precision and the color, without effects, subtly highlights the depth and diversity of Cambodia’s landscapes. The creation of this work took 10 years and I was able to observe that certain places have disappeared or have been considerably transformed by the rapid upheavals and construction of the recent years.

“My Beloved” is a personal journey with analog photography and a love letter to my homeland. It shows my emotional and sentimental response to the places that I photographed. At each location, I took my time to absorb the atmosphere, breathe the air, to get a deeper sense of the nature and people I was photographing. Like carefully opening an envelope and taking a letter from inside, my intention for this work is to convey the gentle flow of time and the rich colors of Cambodia to the world.

A photographic journey into the land where the new generation can hope and dream.

Cambodia, 2012 – 2022