Launch & Signing of the book City Night Light by Sovan Philong
08.06.2022 - 7 p.m./8:30 p.m.
Launch and signing of City Night Light in the presence of the young Cambodian photographer Sovan Philong and Christian Caujolle, founder of the VU agency, who discovered his work and contributed to the international recognition of Cambodian photography. This book marks the completion ten years of photography by Sovan Philong on the nightlife of his country.
His work began in 2010 in Siem Reap. Close to the temples of Angkor, the city beats to the rhythm of tourism during the day. The photographer wonders what the city looks like once the tourists are asleep and the non-existent public lighting leaves it in the shadows. From neighborhood to neighborhood, he tirelessly travels on his small motorcycle, flushing out in the light of his headlight a world he was unaware of. His quest soon extends to Phnom Penh.
In a photographic style full of dense colours and precise framing, playing with the weak lights of human activity augmented only by those of his vehicle, he paints a portrait of Cambodian urban life that is both dense and floating, and full of astonishment for the people whose existence he briefly shares...
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Launch and signing of the book City Night Light with Sovan Philong and Christian Caujolle, founder of Agence VU, who discovered Philong's work and contributed to Cambodian photography's international acknowledgment. This book completes a ten year work by Sovan Philong, a young and gifted Cambodian photographer who has been documenting his country's nightlife.
This work started in 2010 in Siem Reap, the neighboring city of Angkor temples, the heart of which beats with tourism during daytime. Philong then wondered what the city looks like when tourists are asleep and when it is kept in obscurity by the lack of street lightning. He began drifting tirelessly from one side of the city to the other on his small motorbike, in the headlight of which an unknown world emerged. His rides soon extended to Phnom Penh. With his intensely colored and meticulously framed photographs, playing with the faint light of human activity only enhanced by the one of his vehicle, he provides a picture of Cambodian urban life that is at once dense and floating, tinged with his astonishment for the people with whom he briefly crosses paths.