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Cambodia Everyday Life: Through the Eyes of a Journeying Photographer

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Cambodia Everyday Life: Through the Eyes of a Journeying Photographer ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following reference: Stuart-Watt, Alan Phillip (2015) Cambodia everyday life: through the eyes of a journeying photographer. MCrA thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/48317/ The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owner of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please contact [email protected] and quote http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/48317/ Cambodia Everyday Life through the eyes of a journeying photographer By Alan Phillip Stuart-Watt Bachelor of Adult & Vocational Education Diploma of Photography Diploma of Business Management A creative work in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Arts in the College of Arts, Society and Education JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY July 2015 Originality Statement I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at JCU or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged. Signed Date 7th of July, 2015. ii Copyright Statement I hereby grant James Cook University or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part to university libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise James Cook University to use the abstract of my thesis. Signed Date 7th of July, 2015. iii Acknowledgments I would like to give a heartfelt thanks to my supervisors, Professor Ryan Daniel, Doctor Douglas Spowart and Associate Professor Katja Fleischmann. To Roden Doun, my Khmer teacher and translator in Cambodia, who also helped with travel advice whilst motorcycling around Cambodia. I give a special thanks to Fredrick who became a mentor on Cambodia‟s history, art and cultural matters, plus on occasion a travelling partner whilst residing in Cambodia. I would like to also thank James Cook University for the financial contribution to this study. To my family, my mother, Jean, who has been my rock over the years and daughter Adeline Jean Stuart-Watt who is a very special young, lady. Finally to my partner Vivi, who has been a tremendous support and encouragement throughout my study and my true love. iv ABSTRACT Cambodia everyday life through the eyes of a journeying photographer Can journeying in photography be used to record the everyday? Philosopher Walter Benjamin, and Professor Ben Highmore who have written about everyday life consider photography as a medium that has a natural capacity to record the everyday. The researcher has examined photographic techniques; capture methodologies, and new digital technologies that allow for the recording of the everyday. Journeying photographers in history were studied to understand the camera‟s capacity to record into this genre. Photographers reviewed include Lewis Hine who has successfully recorded life as a social documentary photographer. Several other contemporary photographers such as Sebastião Salgado were also investigated to establish a context for the researcher‟s own work. The researcher chose to carry out fieldwork in Cambodia, as it is a nation going through significant societal change. It is one of the poorest in South East Asia and due to the Pol Pot regime has the largest youth population. A fieldwork journey was undertaken over nine months to enable photographic recording at multiple sites in thirteen provinces. A significant body of photographic documentation has been generated of the everyday lives of contemporary Cambodians, which connects social sciences methodologies to journeying photography. The fieldwork is complemented by a review of relevant Cambodian history and an examination of the present post conflict society. This informed and validated the reasons for recording the Khmer people, via a naturalistic methodology. In keeping with the contemporary widespread use of book publishing for photo documentary projects, the images taken have been published into a book. This work has evidence of studies into book design and book layout as a part of the creative arts content. The photo book has also been presented at the Maroochydore Public Library with supporting visual materials as an exhibition. The overall body of work offers a contribution to the discourse on the recording of the everyday, as well as an important recording of contemporary Cambodia. v Table of Contents Originality Statement ........................................................................................................ ii Copyright Statement ........................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi LIST OF PLATES .................................................................................................................. ix CHAPTER ONE: Historical perspective on photography and the everyday .... 1 1.1 Introduction: History of journeying in photography and great journey persons ............................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Stereoscopic photography: The boon to travel and archeological photography .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.3 Pioneering photo journeyers ........................................................................................... 2 1.3.1 Carleton Watkins: journey to document the great west of the US…………………2 1.3.2 Francis Frith and the expansion of the photographic journey ................................. 3 1.3.3 Lewis Hine’s journeys to create human documents ..................................................... 4 1.4 Journeying and larger photographic projects ............................................................ 5 1.4.1 The Missions Heliographique: the beginnings of journeying to photo document ................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.42 Cambodia’s journeying photographer ................................................................................. 8 1.4.3 Farm Securities Administration and the shooting script ........................................... 8 1.5 Deciding where to start my journey .............................................................................. 9 1.6 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................11 CHAPTER TWO: Photo documentary and journeyers who mastered its power ................................................................................................................................... 12 2.1 Introduction: Capturing ‘life now’ through the 35mm camera .........................12 2.2 Masters of documentary photography .......................................................................12 2.2.1 Henri Cartier-Bresson a traveling photojournalist/surrealist/ethnographer 13 2.2.2 W. Eugene Smith: The Pittsburg project ......................................................................... 15 2.2.3 Robert Frank: Journey across the US. .............................................................................. 18 2.2.4 Sebastiao Salgado: the concerned photographer ....................................................... 20 2.3 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................22 CHAPTER THREE: Cambodia as a diverse and ever poor society ................... 24 3.1 Introduction: Serving up the poor as exotic fare ....................................................24 3.2 The tentacles of corruption ............................................................................................24 3.3 The ancient oknhya system, kingdoms, power and super-structures ............25 3.4 Cambodia’s present politics and the re-implementation of the oknhya system ............................................................................................................................................26 3.5 The tradition of slaves and concubines ......................................................................28 3.6 The effects of the Vietnam War .....................................................................................29 3.7 Cambodia’s many conflicts ..............................................................................................29
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