30 Years of Cambodian Photography Projects | Ian Taylor

My first job in Asia was the Business Manager of The Cambodia Daily newspaper. At first I had no clue about photography, I just pointed my 20mm lens at everything and snapped. Eventually my photos got <a bit> better. Cambodia was a wild place to live in those days, here is some video from Phnom Penh in January 1995 that I took while wandering around my neighbourhood near the Royal Palace. It contains the only video of the millions of bats that lived in the roof of The Cambodian National Museum, as they flew over my head every night on St. 179.

I have been shooting continuously in Cambodia as long as any non-Khmer photographer. Mostly I stay off the tourist trail, where Cambodia still has the feel I experienced 30 years ago. Mostly I hang out in Battambang, where many of these photos were taken. In 2006 I was lucky to hang out with a boxing club from Battambang as they went out around to small towns in the northwest of Cambodia to put on matches with local talent. It was fascinating, but I didn’t really know what I was doing with my Canon 20D digital camera, having only one battery and one card. By the time I went back the following year ready to do it correctly, the club had dissolved. Another ancient Khmer tradition gone. You can check out some of that work here.
Soon after this I became a Hong Kong family photographer and didn’t have the time to go back that often, but Cambodia is still my favourite place to take photos in all of Southeast Asia. Now I am a Hong Kong family portrait photographer, but skills I use for that job, I learned here.