Travelling through Cambodia can lead to a serious diversion from the core brief of landscape photography. The reason behind this is the depth and wealth of humanity which pervades this wonderful country. From ancient civilisations to the appalling reality of the Khmer Rouge, it’s easy to drop-out of the landscape and tune-in to one of the most fascinating cultures on the planet.
A number of early civilisations once dominated this land. This reached an apogee with the mighty Khmer empire of the 9th-15th century A.D. The sublime temples of Angkor are a lasting testimony to the Khmer and you would be hard-pressed to find a more impressive set of structures anywhere else in the world.
Although I frequently use two cameras in the field – the film-based Linhof 617 and the digital Canon 1Ds mkII – I find it almost impossible to resist the temptation to use the former over the latter; the clarity and definition of the large-format film being a joy to behold. However, this detail comes at the expense of methodical operation and a cumbersome set-up procedure.
Attempting to photograph children playing, for example, quickly becomes frenetic endeavour. Fast shutter speeds and film emulsions (I often change over from ISO50 to ISO400 film) are required to ‘freeze’ the movement of, say, faces. Opening up the aperture (the light gathering iris of the lens) also helps but this comes at the expense of depth of field. You can imagine cycling through the various permutations in the heat of events...
One can only hope that recent wounds will slowly heal because this unique country has changed my complete remit – one simply cannot attempt to document Cambodia without a reference to its wonderful people.
