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The third Angkor Photography Festival is taking place this month (17-28 November 2007) in Cambodia and has attracted leading photographers from around the world and tens of thousands of local visitors.

The Temples of Angkor are again the evocative location for this inspiring event aimed at promoting photography and education in South-East Asia. The festival, the first of its kind in the region, was created in 2005 by Gary Knight, Christophe Loviny and Jean-Yves Navel. This year it includes 20 exhibitions and 120 projections, along with workshops for emerging Asian photographers and a programme for street children.

Speaking from this year’s festival, Christophe Loviny told CPN that more and more people are coming to the event. “We wanted to do something in a part of the world where there was nothing like this,” said Loviny. “Also, Cambodia is between India and China in the heart of South-East Asia. Lots of local people are doing photography and lots of Europeans come here to do it as well. “It’s not been that long since the war ended and generations have suffered here. As photographers, we wanted to do something.”

He added that Canon had sponsored the exhibits and had helped to make the workshops possible. This year’s workshops had been “fantastic” and “very professional”, he said. Twenty-six photographers were invited to attend the classes given by reknowned photographers and picture editors. This year the tutors included Antoine d’Agata, Marc Brincourt, Renee Byer, Philip Jones Griffiths, Tengku Bahar Idris, Paul Kitagaki, Suthep Kritsanavarin, Roland Neveu, Olivier Nilsson and Patrick de Noirmont. Canon and Apple provided equipment and software.

Selva Prakash from India won this year’s Paris Match award for the best emerging Asian photographer for his photo essay about AIDS sufferers and their families. “It was really touching and the judges were impressed by the quality of his work,” said Loviny. “It was very emotional and he really took time to analyse the relationship between the patients and their families.

The Festival’s exhibitions and screenings focus on two established genres: ‘concerned’ documentary photography and fine art photography. The programme cuts a broad swathe through the world of photography in Asia. This year, the Festival is presenting Asia through the eyes of photographers across the world. They include, from Europe: Patrick Aventurier, Agnès Dherbeys, Olivier Föllmi, Benoît Gysembergh, Jeff Hargrove, David Hogsholt, Hans Silvester, Goksin Sipahioglu, and John Vink. From the United States: James Whitlow Delano, Ron Haviv, Stuart Isett, Stephanie Sinclair and John Stanmeyer. From China: Zhao Guomin, Zhang Xinmin and James Zeng Huang. From India: Palani Mohan, Altaf Qadri and Dr Vivek M. From Thailand: Suthep Kritsanavarin. From Singapore: Sean Lee and Chris Yap. From Korea: Lee Sung-Eun and Noh Suntag. From Japan: Michael Yamashita. From Taiwan: Chin Cheng Tsai. From Indonesia: Kemal Jufri and Toto Santiko Budi. From Bangladesh: Munem Wasif.

In addition, the Festival runs workshops for street children, and has created the Anjali centre in Siem Reap to provide them with basic schooling and art education. What started out as photography and dance workshops for street children during the first Angkor Photography Festival in 2005 has now evolved into a sustainable project aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty. The Angkor Photo Association founded Anjali to help give daily care and education to the children, many of whose parents are landmine victims or suffer from AIDS.

“Canon helped to provide some digital cameras for the children and we are going to try to raise some money for a book of their pictures,” said Loviny. “These children are the last generation still really suffering from the war and we wanted to give them an education.” Their work is being presented as exhibits and slideshows during evening soirées at the Angkor Temples and at Siem Reap’s most beautiful locations.