Larry Towell is a photojournalist who travels reluctantly and only when the subject really matters. But if he travels he does so to really follow his subjects around for a long time, he tells a story from a very humanistic point of view adding his own unique perspective. From 1993 to 2006 he photographed in Israel and Palestine, producing an immense body of work. Two amazing books, "Then Palestine" and "No Man's Land", arose out of this work.
Initially he wished to document the birth of a nation, following the Oslo-Agreement. Instead he ended up documenting what he would later refer to as "the World's largest open-air prison". In 2001 he was given a small video camera and began to maintain a video diary while working in Israel and Palestine. In his 40 minute documentary "Indecisive Moments" - which won the "Achievement in Filmmaking for a Documentary" award at the 2007 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, also known as "the voice of indie film" - Larry Towell documents events and perspectives of those caught up in violence. The result is a highly personal documentary from the perspective of one of the world’s most acclaimed photojournalists. "Indecisive Moments" bridges the gap between artist and reporter bringing the viewer inside Towell's highly stylized world.
Ordering Discount
We are offering a 10% discount on the DVD's price from the Magnum Store for the first ten readers who order the DVD. With this discount you only pay $ 27 instead of $ 30 plus shipping. If you are in New York you could even pick up your copy of the DVD after ordering at the Magnum office and you'd save the shipping cost.
If you want to order and would like to take advantage of the discount please send me an e-mail. If you are one of the first ten you'll get a coupon code from us that you need to use in order to receive the discount. If you do not use this code we can not give a discount anymore once the ordering process is completed.
First the rats: I wish you all a very happy New Year. A Khmer New Year that is... We're leaving the year of the pig for the year of the rat. I am a rat. 5th cycle. With some luck I 'll work my way through two more. It is one nice thing about Cambodia: if you forgot to celebrate Christian New Year, there is always the Chinese and the Khmer New Year to remind you that time passes by...
Now the squashed dogs. The French newspapers have a term for the 'Man Bites Dog' stories which reads: 'la rubrique des chiens écrasés' (the 'squashed dogs section'). These stories are always considered with some contempt by 'serious' news readers. Because well, according to the 'serious' news readers they are not important stories compared to the 'big' stories. You know the 'big' stories: the events you can see simultaneously on 80% of the television screens worldwide and towards which hundreds of journalist are flocking. Yes... But what is big for who? And who decides what is big? Is big 'big' because the majority says it is big? Or is big 'big' because the major media tell the majority what is big? Or is it a minority telling the media what is big?
There are many moments when an individual doesn't care about the 'big' events. For example the owner of the dog squashed by a runaway truck is convinced that the big story of the moment is his dead dog. He doesn't care if the Dalai Lama will have a discussion about Tibet with China. He cares about the disappearance of his dog. So do his children, his wife. The neighbours also think it is big news because they won't be disturbed by the barking at night. Another example are the 200 families who lost all their belongings in a fire this week in Phnom Penh. Hardly an event which will draw a crowd of foreign correspondents... Cambodia is far away.
And yet: about 1000 people who were living on the edge are now facing even harder times. If it isn't big news for Poughkeepsie (NY), for Fox News or the BBC, it is for them, their family, their friends (and for the real estate speculators).
That was it for the rats and the squashed dogs. Now you should ask: 'What has the getting published to do with squashed dogs and rats?'
Magnum In Motion's new format with it's inaugural series WARS
Magnum In Motion has set a new format, as a series of four essays where photographers' imagery, experiences, and commentary come together to explore a given theme.
WARS, the inaugural series will launch on the Magnum In Motion home page, March 19, five years after the war in Iraq began. It will be published on Slate as four episodes.
The point of departure was a quote extracted from Magnum photographer Philip Jones Griffiths from a 2006 interview conducted in London by Magnum In Motion.
The British photographer, and author of the book Vietnam Inc. (1971), said with tongue in cheek: "Photographers are either mud people or sand people. I'm a mud person."
Three photographers covering conflicts today were asked to react to this quote with their own experiences of documenting wars.
Christopher Anderson "It’s not actually the dead that I have seen in the Middle East, the physical destruction, that takes the toll: It’s this sense of this endless cycle. It’s hard to go and watch the similar sort of circumstances play themselves out over and over again."
Paolo Pellegrin "While covering the war in Lebanon in 2006, bombs and missiles were exploding around us—but you never saw who was launching them. It was different from
all the wars I had covered before, where you always had a sense of front lines and space and your presence within that space. This might be the way future wars look."
Thomas Dworzak "I’m embedded with the Americans in Iraq. As a Westerner, there is no more access to the insurgent’s side. I don’t claim to have any overview. History
made my choice—it’s fine!"
Please let us know what you think, we will appreciate all feedback a lot!
I am going to talk about the Khmer Rouge Tribunal again. Sorry... But I believe important questions were raised recently. At the end of february the ECCC organised two days of on site investigations with Duch, one of the five former Khmer Rouge leaders under custody of the tribunal, at the Chhoeung Ek killing fields and at Tuol Sleng museum, the ex S21 KhmerRouge interrogation center.
Obviously and for confidentiality reasons the press was banned from this judicial investigation, a common and quite understandable procedure. No big deal: it's all taken care of in the internal rules of the court (rule 35/1/a, rule 35/2/a & c).
The police forces around Tuol Sleng were numerous and the inhabitants from the area were warned not to allow journalists peeking over the former school's walls from their rooftops. The photographers were told they would be blacklisted from the ECCC if they took pictures of Duch. One journalist in a house opposite the museum was held by police for a couple of hours and all her pictures were erased from her cards.
Ok, so there was not much left to take photographs of: some policemen blocking the road, the bench they were sitting on and the white car carrying Duch back to his prison flashing by... That was a fairly boring day for sure... But the Law is the Law: no pictures of the investigation, be it of historic value or not...
Well, think twice... The Law has rabbits in its hat (rule 56/2/b): it can "jointly grant access to the judicial investigation to the media or other non-parties in exceptional circumstances". And yes indeed: it soon leaked out that there was a camera team present at the on site investigation. Questions were asked as to who these people were of course. They are Jean Reynaud, a lawyer taking a sabbatical to make a movie on the investigation, and Rémi Lainé, a well known documentary filmmaker. They work under very specific conditions to make a "broader documentary project to describe the technical aspects of the investigation". The 3/03/2008 ECCC press release (download "OCIJ Statement on Reconstruction Recordings") about this issue boils down to:
Nuon Chea, Brother Nr 2 under the Khmer Rouge regime, had his first hearing at the pre trial chambers of the ECCC to examine his appeal for his provisional detention. The press officers of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, just to keep things orderly, and on request of the judges who felt that a mob of camera wielding journalists was intimidating for the elderly accused, decided to allow only 5 photographers, working for a pool, and two cameramen to take pictures inside the courtroom during 5 minutes, just before and during the entrance of the judges.
I was lucky, together with my khmer colleagues Tang Chhin Sothy, Chor Sokunthea, Mak Remissa and Heng Sinith, representing AFP, Reuters, EPA, AP, to be allowed in (was it because my permanent accreditation to the Chambers bears the number 001?). We know each other, have had each others elbows in our ribs on numerous occasions, bumped our lenses often and get along pretty well. Partly because we do help each other once in a while and partly because they know that Magnum is no real competition for them. Having their picture on the screen of the redactions one minute before the other agencies is vital whereas Magnum chugs along several hours later anyhow...
So what can one do to stand out? What difference can you make (in 5 minutes and with a 35mm only)? Well not much really... Especially because you're in a pool, so you HAVE to deliver or you will not be selected next time. The photographers outside are waiting to pick their choice in what's going to be available on the ECCC computer and they'd be more than willing to take your place.
Basically I start by making sure there is at least ONE usable picture. No risk taking... Autofocus, straight flash, no fancy composition, the accused smack in the middle of the frame, 5 or six shots. That's it... Switch to the M8, ambient light (the last firmware update finally delivers acceptable white balance results), 320 ISO (too much noise higher up), 2.8, 30th/ second and MOVE, change position, go to the back of the pack, slide to the right, push back into the pack again, move back and go to the left where the judges are, go straight back towards the accused, frame, focus and... finished. It's over. The 5 minutes are gone. We're politely asked by the security guards to leave the room... Hoping we didn't screw up and that there is something a little different to show. There are about 60 frames on my cards, 40 of which are really useless.
Why did you go to Haiti initially?
I went to Haiti because I wanted to do something to supplement my New York work. It wasn't far, it's three and a half hours direct flight from New York City. They have a Mardi Gras in February so that means people are on the street.
A very important factor is that historically Haitians weren't against being photographed. Whereas if you go to some other Caribbean countries, it would be much tougher to photograph. In other words, you'd put your life really in danger. Like Jamaica, if you don't have an 'entre' it's a tough place and they don't take to being photographed as well. If you're going to the areas I go into, you'll lose your camera or you lose your life.
But I should say, none of the pictures that I had seen of Haiti really knocked me out. There wasn't something that I saw, where I said "Wow, I love that picture so much, Haiti must be great for photographs."
What did you feel was lacking from the photographs you'd seen?
A photo either works or it doesn't. And if it doesn't it could be really horrible or it could be mediocre. That's a dialog that for me doesn't even need to be discussed because you see that it's good or it isn't. I'm not saying that everyone has my vision or my eye, but I'm pretty versed in what makes a good image.
What were looking for, visually and in terms of content?
I just go see what I get. I always work in my style but in every country that I go to I always find something a little different. I can sit there and say, "This is what I'm going to photograph" but then you get there and it's all fantasy because it's not what you thought it was.
I started, I think, in '85 during Mardi Gras and I was with my ex wife. We had a rental car and we were driving it from the airport to the hotel - the airport isn't far from downtown Port-au-Prince, lovely Port-au-Prince - and it was a Sunday night. I remember all these people were running to a soccer match in front of the car. I said to my ex wife, "Where have I been all my life?" because I just knew. It was because of all the people and all the activity and it was just great.
So with this photograph…. To me, Haiti has all the things that should make it a great country having a nice climate, being an island. But it's the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. I think if you work in a factory there, you get 3 dollars a day. That doesn't go very far.
It has been seven years now that the area along the Bassac river in Phnom Penh has been under intense pressure from real estate developers. Seven years that I document the mutations of a territory where thousands of people were scraping a living thanks to the proximity of the center of town. They all have small jobs. They all have precarious living conditions. They make a couple of dollars a day collecting tin cans or scrap metal, selling shells, sugar cane or their virginity.
During rainy season the place is flooded, muddy. The people sleep with rats feeding on the pile of garbage thrown from the upper floors of the "Building", built by architect Vann Molyvann and once a showcase for modernity. But it is also the area where Kong Nay, the famous "chappey" player, the bluesman of the Mekong, is living.
E'Phutang, former heavyweight khmer boxing world champion, had his gym there, and most of the pictures in my book "Poids Mouche" were made there. Despite their resistance they all will have to move, clear the area, go and live 20 or 30km from the center of town to relocation sites designated by the authorities.
If they are lucky they get some kind of a compensation like a 3mx6m brick compartment (not really a house) or a few thousand dollars. That's today. A few years ago the whole slum would burn down in a couple of hours. How the fire started nobody would know for sure. Or people would be dumped in an empty rice field without sanitation, water, school, market, leaving NGO's to cope with the mess. My estimate is that over 15000 people will have been kicked out to allow the construction of what will become the new Phnom Penh, trying to catch up with Singapore, Hong Kong or Bangkok in terms of high rises...
It seems as if the lessons learned during all the social struggles over the last two centuries have still to penetrate the minds of Cambodians, those with power that is. Cambodia went straight from colonialism to a war, with a short intermission of prosperity, and then to plain horror. Today it is finally learning about development but also about 19th century paternalism...
I have just spent an hour and a half with a saw and many plastic rubbish bags clearing up the family Christmas tree at home in London. Not my favorite job, as my children, safely out of the way at school, think we have same tree, called "Charlie", each year. "Charlie" gets collected after Christmas and sent to Scotland to be re planted, so each year it has to come back bigger, and this year, at three metres plus, it was almost impossible to transport it up the stairs!
It is also at this time of year that the area I live in in London is dotted with abandoned trees simply dumped on the street to be collected and re-cycled by the local council. In 2005 I made a short collection of pictures of this phenomenon, which is I am sure repeated all over the world.
I hope my children don't read the Magnum Blog!
It has been a busy month in Cambodia. Things around and at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal itself have taken an accelerated pace with the arrests of Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, of Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea and probably others in the pipeline. But most of all the first public hearings took place regarding the appeal against his detention of Kang Guek Eav, alias Duch, in charge of the S21 interrogation center during the Pol Pot regime.
It is the first time Duch appeared in public since over 8 years, and there was a long line of people at the entrance of the courtroom. They filled the hall where two big screens showed what happened in the crammed pretrial chambers nearby. Press photographers and cameramen were alllowed five minutes at the beginning of two hearings. The first time we were about sixty and inevitably there was some pushing and shoving. Luckily it was in my back... The second time, before the judges would tell Duch he would stay in prison, things were better organised and only five photographers were allowed in, pooling for those who had to stay outside. The light in the pretrial chamber was kind of gloomy neon. It was a weird impression to stand two or three meters from someone who is tried for crimes against humanity and who is accused of being responsible for the death of some 15000 people. It is weird because he is just an old man, with glassy eyes looking at us, late at standing up when the judges come in, but seemingly healthier looking than eight years ago. It is as if the monster has disappeared with the system which created it...
Now that this tome has hit the streets, I thought it would be worthwhile to give some details to the background of this project. All Magnum group projects have to gain board or membership approval, and so it was at the 2006 AGM in London we were discussing Thames and Hudson's interest in doing a book to celebrate our 60th anniversary for 2007.I came up with an idea that the photographers select each other as being a potentially interesting way to get a fresher selection, and to benefit from inside knowledge within the agency.
As most people are aware Magnum is the only agency where the photographers vote on any potential new member, so it would be quite logical that we select each others' work for this book. Peer group knowledge can also be quite illuminating as we know our fellow photographers' work pretty well. This idea then started to get legs and it was clear that the only person capable of orchestrating such an undertaking was Brigitte Lardinois who had worked in the London Magnum cultural department for 12 years. Not only was she liked by all the photographers, she would know all our quirks, foibles and was also very charming and persuasive, a vital ingredient to make this work. One month was allotted to the task of making up the pairings, but in fact this eventually turned into 3 months. Some photographers would have to select more than one, because of the estates, but it soon became obvious this was no easy task. Jane Cutter, an editor at Thames and Hudson likened this process to organising a teenage camping trip. You had to find out who did not want to share a tent with x, who did not mind sharing with anybody, and who was determined to sleep on their own. She also had the problem that some photographers were very popular and were over subscribed with potential selectors, and horror of horrors, some had no suitors.
After 3 months, 4,000 e-mails and hours on the phone it all worked out like a huge jigsaw. A couple of photographers such as Dennis Stock insisted on self selection. Some photographers such as Bruce Davidson insisted that he was selected by Chien-Chi, and that he selected Chien-Chi, who he regards as the most underrated photographer within Magnum. Brigitte then had the task of getting the introductory text out of the photographers, and this too was a daunting task. This process was all the more difficult as the photographers would disappear as the were on assignments or doing personal work in all the corners of the globe.
The texts do display real insights, much affection and respect for their colleague photographers.
So far, so good. At the AGM in 2007 when I was debriefing the member photographers about progress on this project, there was much concern voiced about the procedure for signing off the proofs and of course the quality of the printing. Some photographers demanded to personally sign off their proofs, and this meant sending them to summer retreats, and catching the restless Josef Koudelka at one of his rare times in the Magnum Paris office or other rather complicated arrangements. I agreed to take on the responsibility of checking all the proofs. These finally caught up with me in a hotel in Tokyo and meant getting up at 4am, so they could be returned immediately, as by now the project was on a very tight schedule to come out now for the run up to Xmas.
So finally the book is out and weighing 6.5kg and with 414 photographs it is an epic item. I calculate that at £95 in the UK, this means it works out at £14.62 per kilo, about the same price as cod, so you do get a lot of book for your money.
It has also been published in 7 language editions around the globe.
Surprisingly this is the only recent Magnum group project that included every photographer and estate, a rare achievement, as there is usually a photographer who declines to participate, for various reasons.
My congratulations to Brigitte and the London Magnum office staff who supported her sterling work. I think she could be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2002, Alec Soth traveled with his wife to Bogotá, Colombia to adopt a baby girl. The baby's birth mother gave the new parents a book filled with letters, pictures and poems for their new daughter. 'I hope that the hardness of the world will not hurt your sensitivity,' she wrote. 'When I think about you I hope that your life is full of beautiful things.'
During the two months that the Colombian courts processed their adoption paperwork, Soth set about making his own book for his daughter. Soth recently completed this book, Dog Days Bogotá. On November 9th, an exhibition of this work will debut at Weinstein Gallery in Soth's hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Soth discusses Dog Days Bogotá with his intern, Carrie Thompson, a photography student at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Carrie Thompson: You made this book for your daughter, why did you decide to make it for the public?
Alec Soth: Wow, you're starting with the hardest question - you should be a journalist! Unfortunately I don't have a great answer. This work was produced five years ago. After Sleeping by the Mississippi was published, it didn't feel right to do this book. So I just kept it in my back pocket. After Niagara, I guess I was ready.
CT: Tell me about the dogs, how did they become so important?
AS: I was aware of the street kids in Bogotá. I mean, it is a hard thing to ignore, but I was especially attuned to it because of the adoption experience. But I was uncomfortable photographing these kids. So I photographed street-dogs instead. I guess they were a stand-in for the kids.
CT: So do the dogs have different types of personalities in your eyes - like young street children?
AS: Great question. In a way, this gets at why I was uncomfortable photographing the kids. I mean, I wasn't seeing them as individuals; I was generalizing them as a group. I don't like doing that. The dogs are all a little different, but I'm using them largely as an idea.
CT: It seems like you are searching for something in these images, was there something you were looking for?
AS: In the dog pictures or the book as a whole?
CT: All of the photos, the book.
AS: Yeah, I feel like I was looking for something...I'm just not sure what it was. But, of course, it all has to do with my daughter. Since we weren't given too much information about her background, the whole city became charged with her presence. I guess I was looking for signs of her and her background.
CT: Imagine your daughter looking at this book in five years, what do you want to see in her birthplace?
AS: I guess I want it to be a real place for her. I mean, we are already showing her the pictures (we only tore one page out of the book). We talk about Colombia a lot with her. As a five year old, it is just a mythical place. But over time, I want her to absorb it as a real place and as a real part of her history. I suspect that in five years she would be ready to take a trip there.
At 5:30 am on 12/11/2007 special police units and representatives of the ECCC arrested KIM Trang, alias Ieng Sary, and his wife Ieng Thirith at their home on street 21 in Phnom Penh and transferred them to the Khmer Rouge tribunal's prison in Kambol in execution of an arrest warrant for Crimes against Humanity.
Ieng Sary, born in 1925 in Kampuchea Krom (a vietnamese province wich once belonged to Cambodia) studies in France in the 50ties, comes back to Cambodia in 57 and in 63, by then a member of the PTK and brother-in law of SALOTH Sar, alias POL Pot, he joins the maquis. He is deputy prime minister during the Khmer Rouge regime from 75 to 79 and flees to Thailand after the vietnamese invasion. He receives the death penalty in absentia during a trial set up by the PRK. After the Paris Peace Accords of 91 he settles in Pailin and in 96 is instrumental in the surrender of the Khmer Rouge controlled area which triggered the subsequent surrender of the other KR areas. King Norodom Sihanouk gratifies him with a Royal Pardon for that fatal blow to the Khmer Rouge movement.
Ieng Sary's house happens to be in my street, so at least I didn't have to get up too early. Unfortunately for us, security was very tight and all the 5 journalists who were present at that time were pushed back 200 meters near a garbage dump by the Anti-Terrorist squad who was in charge. We waited there until 8:30am, trying to spot any movement near the cars parked in front of the house, speculating which road they would leave through, chatting with the policemen or the defence lawyers who were blocked by the police just like us, and chasing away the flies buzzing on the garbage. By then the number of journalists had increased by at least 20 and the big telelenses were readied. My poor 135mm certainly was no match but in fact it didn't really matter because the car going to carry the former Khmer Rouge leaders was driven inside the courtyard, so at 9:00 it became certain we would not see the faces of those being arrested. It also became clear that they would leave through the other street, so most of us rushed over there, mingling with the people from the densely populated street. Many of them did not have a clue of who Ieng Sary is. Around 9:30 the motorcade cut through the little crowd and left some dust behind. None of us journalists has had even a glimpse of Brother Nr 3...
This is the third and final part of a multi-part article series on the work of Magnum's multimedia department. The first part of this series was entitled "The philosophy behind the story", the second part "The importance of sound". Bjarke Myrthu, the executive editor of Magnum In Motion, grants us a view behind the scenes and shows us how the Magnum In Motion team brings life to static photographs on the web.
After a month and a half of hard work we are at last screening the final edit of "Libera Me", the latest Magnum In Motion essay. Everything is received well by Alex Majoli and the rest of the people that watch it. However having a movie that plays merrily on the computer is not the same as having a finalized online piece. Some hard work still lies ahead. We need to make the movie run smoothly online, making it viewable on a reasonable fast internet connection without loosing too much quality, and we need to add the extra features and chapters that make this story different from an offline video.
Naturally the most important thing is the content and the story. But the online platform holds certain technical limitations that inadvertently influence the stories. However having certain technical boundaries is nothing new to storytellers. The old day moviemakers had to stay within twenty-minute sections, because this was all a camera reel could hold, which, newspaper and broadcast journalists have time and space limitations and so on. The important thing is how you play with the creativity and use these limits to form your storytelling.
The challenge online is that the better and bigger the visuals look, and the better the audio sounds, the more data has to be pushed through the internet pipeline, which often means that the viewer in the other end will experience a jagged and slow playback. To be sure that the story plays well it has to be compressed, but then the images risk becoming small and pixilated and the audio will sound canny and chopped. One of the ways to avoid this has been to chop the story into smaller elements, giving the end user less to load through the internet.
Screenshot from the Magnum In Motion essay "Revolution" by Burt Glinn
This fragmented way of telling stories can, however, work nicely if you either use it to give the viewer control of the navigation, or you trick the viewer into thinking it is one long story, because certain parts are loaded while the others are being watched. A story like "Revolution" is actually build from small pieces of photos, graphics and audio, but they load in a sequence that makes it look like one long movie. In "Libera Me" we choose to chop the story into several different chapters. This gives the viewer a better overview and leaves a choice to watch certain parts of the story separately, which I think makes sense in this story (other stories are more suited to be kept as one entire piece), but technically it also ensures a better playback.
It seems there is not a day when something of Cambodia's past is up for grabs and available to the one with the highest bid. Lately, the land owned by the government on which was built the Suramarit theater was sold for an undisclosed amount and for an undisclosed period of time as a concession to a private company who doesn't seem to have precise plans. It is difficult to be less transparent with public property...
In Cambodia one often knows what he'll lose but not what he'll get in return. And here the loss is considerable. The theatre is one of architect Vann Molyvann's highest achievements. In the so-called "Golden Era" of the 60's the Cambodian architect has dotted the landscape of his capital Phnom Penh with landmarks of international standards like the School of Foreign Languages, Chaktomuk conference hall or the Olympic stadium. During the 80's the theatre was a point of convergence for the artists scattered by the Khmer Rouge regime. This was the place where one could assess who was left alive among the heirs of centuries old culture. Cambodian film director Rithy Panh has used the theatre as a pivotal point for his film "Le Theatre Brule" which precisely and quite humorously checks where exactly Cambodia stands today on a cultural level.
During its rehabilitation in 1994 the theatre was gutted by a fire and left crippled until today. Crippled but still alive. Some 300 artists, traditional dancers, members of the Royal Ballet, kept using the place for rehearsals, working under collapsing roofs or in the nearby exhibition grounds.
This is the second part of a multi-part article series about the work of Magnum's multimedia department. The first part of this series is entitled "The philosophy behind the story". Bjarke Myrthu, the executive editor of Magnum In Motion, grants us a view behind the scenes and shows us how the Magnum In Motion team brings life to static photographs on the web.
The first question when we decide to make a Magnum In Motion essay is what kind of images we have, and h
First the rats: I wish you all a very happy New Year. A Khmer New Year that is... We're leaving the year of the pig for the year of the rat. I am a rat. 5th cycle. With some luck I 'll work my way through two more. It is one nice thing about Cambodia: if you forgot to celebrate Christian New Year, there is always the Chinese and the Khmer New Year to remind you that time passes by...
Now that this tome has hit the streets, I thought it would be worthwhile to give some details to the background of this project. All Magnum group projects have to gain board or membership approval, and so it was at the 2006 AGM in London we were discussing Thames and Hudson's interest in doing a book to celebrate our 60th anniversary for 2007.I came up with an idea that the photographers select each other as being a potentially interesting way to get a fresher selection, and to benefit from inside knowledge within the agency.
In Cambodia one often knows what he'll lose but not what he'll get in return. And here the loss is considerable. The theatre is one of architect Vann Molyvann's highest achievements. In the so-called "Golden Era" of the 60's the Cambodian architect has dotted the landscape of his capital Phnom Penh with landmarks of international standards like the School of Foreign Languages, Chaktomuk conference hall or the Olympic stadium. During the 80's the theatre was a point of convergence for the artists scattered by the Khmer Rouge regime. This was the place where one could assess who was left alive among the heirs of centuries old culture. Cambodian film director Rithy Panh has used the theatre as a pivotal point for his film "Le Theatre Brule" which precisely and quite humorously checks where exactly Cambodia stands today on a cultural level.