The Bophana Audio Visual Resource Centre is exhibiting the work of photography students of Sala La Valla School. The photographs document the quotidian life of these kids. The portraits of their friends and of each other give you a feeling that you are looking deep into the mind of the subject. There are photographs of kids being kids and doing funny things.
Some of them depict the kids doing odd things, like my favourite: a hand in a vat of water animals. There are photographs of people and objects passing by. And there is the big portrait of the brothers at dusk, one with a dog, one with a rooster: kids you've seen, or known or wish you had. They are fun photos, feel-good photos. They are what you would expect from a group of good, young photographers. There are truly many amazing things about this body of photography work. Not the least of which is the fact that all the photographers and most of the subjects are blind.
This show also exhibits the work of a very dynamic young artist named Vandy Rattana. Rattana facilitated the workshop in which he taught the kids how to use a camera. Rattana is a member of Selpak Neari, a group of young local artists who exhibit around town and who help each other. He is also a protégé of Stephane Jenin who owned Popil Gallery. In many ways this show is as much about Rattana's dedication to photography and the future of Cambodian art as it is about the work itself.
Sala La Valla: A Photographic Exhibition
February 26-March 26, 2008
Bophana Audiovisual Resource Centre
64 street 200, Okhnia Mén
Tel : +855(0)23.99.21.74