Book: 'To Cambodia With Love' Is Now Available

Finally! To Cambodia With Love,  the book with my photographs of Siem Reap and its environs has been published. It's available from a long list of booksellers all over the world.

It's described on Amazon as "From a tarantula brunch in the remote Cambodian countryside to a leisurely cyclo ride through the streets of Phnom Penh, To Cambodia With Love is a true collaboration, containing personal essays by more than fifty writers. Among them you will find Angkor Wat expert Dawn Rooney, acclaimed memoirist Loung Ung (First They Killed My Father), and Lonely Planet’s in-the-know Nick Ray. Each essay is paired with a practical fact file so that travelers can follow in the writer’s footsteps. In addition, the book is illustrated with vibrant, full-color photographs."

I am hugely chuffed that a book with my vibrant, full-color photographs is on major booksellers' websites, even if my name is misspelled. It's correctly spelled on the book's cover, which is all I care about. What's a Twefic from Tewfic? Just a W that doesn't know where it ought to be.

I hope readers of The Travel Photographer blog interested in Cambodia will buy this book. If I get free copies, I will come up with a contest of some sort and give away copies to winners.

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Agnes Dherbeys: Street With No Name

Agnes Dherbeys is a freelance photographer based in Bangkok since 2001. She decided to take up photography as a career after graduating from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques and Sciences of Communication at the Sorbonne.

Since then, she mostly worked in Thailand, Cambodia, East Timor, Aceh), Nepal and the Palestinian Territories. She was recognized with numerous awards, and is member of the photo collective Eve Photographers

Her galleries generally depict social and humanitarian issues in South East Asia, such as Tibetans in exile (Nepal), 5 years after the tsunami (Aceh), the temple of doom (Thailand), and I chose her work in Cambodia titled The Street With No Name. This is a photo essay on the Karaoke girls in Siem Reap, and was photographed when Agnes attended Gary Knight's workshop in July 2009.

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Book: To Cambodia With Love

Having not read the fine print and that Amazon and Barnes & Noble were promoting the publication date of 1 March 2010 for the new guidebook To Cambodia With Love - A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur, I was on the verge of getting my credit card out to order it on Amazon , only to realize that it's still unavailable, and listed as a pre-order only. Nonetheless, I am hugely chuffed that a book with my photographs of Cambodia is on major booksellers' websites, even if my name is misspelled on the Amazon website.

Ah...my name! I'm always amused how many on my photo~expeditions struggle to pronounce my name and, eventually defeated, call me 'T' (making me feel a bit like Tony Soprano...which is a gigantic compliment in my way of thinking), while the local tribals we visited in Gujarat last week had no difficulty at all. On all my photo~expeditions and individual travels to pretty much "out of the beaten path" places, I have yet to meet a local who struggles with my name or mispronounces it...only Americans find it to be a tongue twister.

But I digress, so back to the important matter in hand. I was referred to the Amazon web page for the To Cambodia With Love via a post on Andy Brouwer's blog. Andy is the editor and contributor of the book, and is a recognized expert of all matters related to Cambodia, where he lives and works. Andy has only finished the final manuscript last weekend, so he predicts that the book will be available in 3-4 months. By the way, this book was in the works since a couple of years. I got paid for my photographs when I submitted them, so I'm sort of relaxed about the final publication date.

I hope readers of The Travel Photographer blog who have an interest in Cambodia will buy this book. If I get free copies, I will come up with a contest of some sort and give away copies to winners.

If I do and as long as the free supply lasts, perhaps I will give a free copy to American readers who pronounce my name correctly.

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Jeffrey Chapman: Cambodia

Currently based in New York State, Jeffrey Chapman describes himself quite well by saying that he is a freelance cultural, humanitarian and world photographer. He also worked as a director for a World Bank project in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China, as an adviser to the Japanese government's JETRO office in Italy, and as an internationalization and strategy consultant working with corporate clients, presidents and prime ministers in Europe, Asia and North America.

Jeffrey is currently a member of the senior staff at the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees in Utica, NY, working as an advocate for refugees (primarily Burmese/Karen, Somali and Iraqi) who are resettling in the United States.

Most of Jeffrey's photographs are of Cambodia, although his second and third galleries feature portraits and scenes of Laos and Vietnam.

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National Geographic: Angkor Wat

Photo © National Geographic
The National Geographic online is featuring a 3D innovative look at the Khmer Empire, which includes Angkor Wat and life as it must have been in the 13th century.

In fact, this animation will provide a sliver of solace to those who heeded the National Geographic's advice of not going to visit the complex. A few months ago, the National Geographic's Intelligent Travel advised people not to go to Siem Reap and to the Angkor complex, and to postpone their visits. It seems the sheer volume of tourists has taken a toll on the Angkor monuments and temples, and that several of the important temples are being restored. Some have unsightly scaffolding with areas just cordoned off. The central section of Angkor Wat is closed to visitors until 2010 at the earliest.


Robot posted as I'm in Morocco

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Eric de Vries: Cham Muslims of Cambodia

Khmer Islam is an audio slideshow produced by photographer Eric de Vries of the Khmer Islam, known as the Cham Muslims. These are members of an ethnic group in villages near the Mekong and Tonle Sap river in Cambodia. Most Chams in Cambodia are involved in fishing and agriculture.

Eric photographed the series at the Islam Spiritual Center, Russei Chrouy village, Masjid-Alrahmani mosque north of Phnom Penh, at the Masjid Thom Dubai mosque on the borders of Boeung Kak lake and at the Nurunnaim Mosque and Chrang Chamreh village on National Road 5.

Eric de Vries lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he's been traveling since 2000, and TTP has featured his work on a previous post.

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Cambodia: Royal Apsaras

Photograph © Christophe Loviny-All Rights Reserved
Christophe Loviny is a photojournalist and editor. He's been a specialist of Southeast Asia for over 25 years, and was based in Angkor from 1989 to 1994. His work on Cambodia has been published in The Sunday Times Magazine, Asiaweek, Geo, L'Express, Paris-Match, Stern, Le Figaro-Magazine, and others. He is the author of several illustrated books, one of which is “Les Danseuses Sacrées d'Angkor”, a collection of texts and photographs on the identity of Cambodia.

Here's a sampling of his photographs of the sacred dancers of Angkor, or The Royal Ballet of Cambodia in a Issuu flash booklet via Lightmediation Photo Agency.

For an early multimedia (QuickTime) gallery of my own, and overdue for a Soundslides makeover, here's Celestial Apsaras.

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Angkor Wat: Don't Go!

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
I've ranted quite a few times about the mindless uber-development which I witnessed in Siem Reap in 2005 and 2006, and how it seemed every time I blinked, a new hotel appeared on the scene....and how I had to make sure that our photographers woke up before dawn to be able to photograph at the temples before waves of tour groups swamped us. I predicted at the time that Siem Reap would turn into a hideous oleo of motels, hotels, inns and fleabags within a few years. Charitably, it's been described as a town of Club Meds.

It turns out I wasn't exaggerating...in fact, perhaps quite the opposite. The National Geographic's Intelligent Travel blog advises people not to go to Siem Reap and to the Angkor complex, and recommends postponing their visits. It seems the sheer volume of tourists has taken a toll on the Angkor monuments and temples, and that several of the important temples are being restored. Some have unsightly scaffolding with areas just cordoned off. The central section of Angkor Wat is closed to visitors until 2010 at the earliest.

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Angkor Photo Festival: 23-28 Nov 2008

For the fourth time, the Angkor Photography Festival will take place in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from the 23rd to the 28th of November 2008.

The program for 2008 includes six evenings of audiovisual presentations from around the world curated by the festival, the workshop tutors, as well as by two internationally renowned photography editors, Sujong Song and Christian Caujolle.

The 2008 festival will also host a series of free photography workshops, present its outreach programs and hold a fund raising photography auction for the Anjali children’s project.

Press Release with PDF of the Press Photos 2008

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My Show-Off: Wat Bo Monastery

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
I'm introducing a new occasional feature to The Travel Photographer's blog, and it'll show off examples of my personal photography.

Although I like Blogger as a blogging platform, I find that photographs could be better displayed in terms of quality and size. The latter can certainly be increased by adjusting the template's code...but I thought it'd be easier if I kept the template as is, but uploaded my "show-off" photograph in a larger size. It would be just a matter of clicking it on the blog, and it would open in its original size.

The first photograph of Show Off is of Kim Suen, an 81 years old sweeper/gardener, early morning at the Wat Bo monastery in Siem Reap. I used Lightroom's Aged Photo Preset on the original photograph, and adjusted various settings until I got the look I wanted.

Here are more of my photographs of Angkor and Siem Reap.

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Amy Thompson: Cambodia

Photograph © Amy Thompson-All Rights Reserved
Amy Thompson is a talented photojournalist who recently completed her masters in documentary photography from Ohio University and is currently teaching at the Massachusetts College of Art. Amy worked as a freelance and staff photographer for The New York Times (Washington D.C. bureau) and was a featured photographer in National Geographic Magazine.

Supported by a grant from the Center for Southeast Asia Studies, she created and produced an essay Peace, Violence and Visitors, which is chosen for this post. Her photographs captioned "Hunting for frogs" and "Selling bok-shoy" in the photo essay amply demonstrate her talent.

To me, Amy's photograph of a lay nun (aka doan-chi) in the Bayon Temple in Angkor Wat, with the smoke of the incense sticks obscuring her face, is a "decisive moment" photograph.

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Beat Presser: Oasis of Silence

Photograph © Beat Presser-All Rights Reserved
When Beat Presser was in late teens, he traveled through Southeast Asia, and met with a car accident in Thailand. Healed from a serious spine injury by monks in a Buddhist monastery, he vowed to do something in return, should he become the photographer he intended to be.

Between 2000 and 2004, he returned to live in Theravada Buddhism monasteries in Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, and photographed the essence of Buddhism. Oasis of Silence is the resulting photographic exhibition and book.

Presser also produced an accompanying website My Oasis of Silence allows participants to post their profile and photographs, and to interact among each other and with Beat Presser, thus creating a growing community and allowing a permanent exchange.

Beat Presser's Buddhism Oasis of Silence is well produced and its background music is haunting, but the B&W photographs are too small to fully appreciate Presser's artistry.

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