New shadow puppets in action for the first time at Sovanna Phum

I hardly took out my camera last month. I needed the break, and my other work takes priority. But a few days ago, I stopped by Sovanna Phum and learned they had a special event that evening–a ceremony and special performance to launch their new set of shadow puppets.  The event was attended by many of the regular artists plus people from the community, a couple of donors or their representatives, and others who straggled in like myself.

Eating in a quiet spot backstage

I’m interested in the families of performers. This boy’s father and mother are traditional arts performers. He is studying to become a drummer and his younger sister is studying dance.

Workers building a new shop in the market pause for lunch

I’m continuing to photograph people and life inside the Russian Market (Psar Tuol Tom Pong). I hope to finish work by November, and we’ll see what comes next.

So far I’ve enjoyed the project. Every time I enter the market I get to practice speaking Khmer and meet new people, most of whom are friendly and enjoy having their pictures taken. This week I’m taking steps to make it official: writing a letter to the governor of Phnom Penh asking permission. I learned that I need permission if I’m not “taking tourist pictures.”

Preparing a fresh duck

Sometimes Japan surprises you. The cities have great parks, with carefully planted trees and occasional rivers coursing through nearly endless gray concrete neighborhoods. This park by the river in Kouzu has another surprise, an anomaly. An old man tends a shed filled with odd bicycles contrived (perhaps by him) and hand made: pandas, tandems, bicycles propelled by bouncing, and others, plus regular unicycles and ten speeds. And every afternoon he signs them out for free to whoever comes and asks. Kouzu is my wife’s home town. We often went walking and riding by the river when we stayed there.

The week before he joined an “art party” at the children’s center where he lives.  A teacher has been working with kids at the center since mid-2007, and some of the older students are very good. They helped the younger kids during the art party, taking up brushes occasionally to teach by example. The results were amazing, and moving if you know the stories behind them.

I made a short video documenting the event with some follow-up video the next weekend (when I took this photo). I’ll post that project eventually, but I’ve been asked to wait and keep it fresh for everyone. If they have an exhibition in Phnom Penh, they’ll debut the video then.

I like this photo. I like the image of creating a painting, and it has a subscript for me. It’s a boy at an orphanage painting his home.  I don’t know his particular story, because he’s new to the center, but it’s a fact that the vast majority of children and youth in orphanages have homes and relatives outside the orphanage: grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, brothers and sisters. Most still have one living parent (and a few have two). The number one reason they are in orphanages is poverty. There are many orphanages but few family support services.

It’s not surprising that a child in an orphanage would paint his home, but maybe it should challenge us.

Ladies at the Russian Market (2008)

I went to the Russian Market today to start work on a long term photo story. I know LOTS of people have taken pictures there, but I’ve never seen any substantive body of work to tell the story of the place. That’s what I’d like to do.

I brought a photograph that I took almost three years ago (see above). It wasn’t hard to find the shop, and though I didn’t recognize the woman behind the counter, she recognized herself in the picture immediately. That was exciting! Other vendors came, they rounded up another one of the ladies pictured, and they all talked about what has changed, and pointed out several things that haven’t. I told her my intention to visit the market regularly, and she seemed very supportive, as was everyone else I talked with. I spent more time talking than using the camera, which suited me fine. I have time for that later. It was great just practicing Khmer and starting to build the relationships I’ll need to do this story well.

This is the woman in the middle of the picture above. She started to give me a lesson in Khmer language, or cooking, based on this plant.

My daughters have a flair for drama. They all disappeared upstairs one day and came down in fantastic outfits and covered with face paint. Reia dressed up Maika in hearts, and I’ve given her an extra dose of angst in this black and white effect.

Before the show

Laughter backstage as the drum troupe gets dressed and ready

A dancer waits for her cue

Shadow puppets behind the screen

A drama unfolds

Monkey dancers provide comic relief

The audience (a small one this night) reacts to the monkey dancers

Shadows of actors and puppets in conflict

Holding candles behind the screen creates beauty and tension onstage

An actor/dancer makes a quick costume and make-up change

Nearing the climax during a performance of Roussey Dek, a beautiful mixed piece

Shadow puppets battle behind the screen

Not to be taken too seriously, a drum performance ends with smiles all around

Most of the receipts, varying between “enough” and  “meager,” are divided among the artists

I started working on a larger story about Sovanna Phum early this year (2011). There are many potential behind the scenes stories and angles: the Sovanna Phum Association and its hard work and history, the making of shadow puppets (and drums), the colors and vitality of traditional arts in Phnom Penh, the real lives and struggles of the artists themselves (including more than one art families), and Phnom Penh as a city yearning to reemerge as a cultural center in Asia again.

I’d love to get some of these stories published and exhibited in different venues.

Here are a few photographs of shadow puppets being made.

Children and shadows, practicing before a mixed dance and shadow puppets performance

Skins are purchased weekday mornings for drums and shadow puppets

The leather is stretched on a rack in the morning then tanned for days in the sun

The puppet patterns are hand drawn by Kosal, co-founder and director of Sovanna Phum

Puppets are punched out slowly taking many hours and days depending on the size

It takes another person more hours to finish and stain them

Making and repairing the tools

Large shadow puppets in action during at weekend performance at Sovanna Phum

Cambodians are streaming into Phnom Penh every day looking for a new start in the big city. Young people come to attend universities and vocational school. They all have dreams that begin with finding a way to make money.  This story is about a vocational school that trains students how to repair cars and  motorcycles. Two or three hundred students are crammed inside at any given time. They range from young kids straight off the farm to well-worn men in their forties. Each can graduate with a certificate as soon as they master the material and pass the tests. They pay a relatively low one time fee that’s good for as long as they want to stay. Most live upstairs free of charge, cooking and caring for themselves: no alcohol is permitted and the doors are locked every night at 7pm. Many vocational schools in Phnom Penh are scams; they prey on people from the countryside. But this school has qualified teachers and the graduates really find jobs. It’s a struggle, but it’s paying off.

Here are a few photographs to give a sense of where this could go.

Re-assembling a motorcycle engine as other students observe

Each student has a unique story to tell

A teacher supervises students working on car engines

Studying after hours

Lunchtime

I’ve been spending lots of time over at Sovanna Phum, a home for traditional arts in Phnom Penh. I like the community; it’s like a doorway to another world behind the scenes. Sovanna Phum’s website had been out of date since November, 2009, because nobody knew how to update it. I was able to figure it out and help in that way. It was a small thing for me, but I think it’s really helped their attendance and finances. I’ve also been helping with a grant they had in process, and I’ve started working on an in depth photo story that I hope to complete over the course of the next six months.

This website is changing, by the way.  Soon (maybe by the time you read this), the front page will show photo stories and series that I’m working on. Plus, I’ll update my portfolio pages, downplay the blog (on the front page) and offer some prints for sale.

I was walking through a slum to visit the family of a young Cambodian man for a story I’m working on. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a heart-rending scene: two girls playing with dolls. One had two dolls carefully laid out on a wooden bed, covered in a blanket, beautiful (especially through her eyes). Another had a doll or two and a few odds and ends of tiny clothing laid out. I know the scene well. I’ve seen my daughter’s play it out the same way. I know the gleam in her eyes that says she can still dream and believe.

A few doors down, in the house where I was headed lives a girl who rocks her real baby in a hammock and the whole house sways in time. She got married two years ago, at the age of 14.

I just read an article about prahok by author Karen Coates on Faster Times.  She laments that some Cambodians who have made it (money) are giving up prahok, as if it’s beneath their rising status. The smell reminds them of worse times. Prahok wreaks, famously so, but that’s no reason to give up a good thing. I can vouch that my neighbors are keeping the faith, and in style. They gather annually to make a year’s supply of prahok, and have a great time. These photos, from earlier this week, will take you through step one: cleaning the fish to prepare it for salting and aging.

It all begins here

Followed by lots of mashing and rinsing

Dress appropriately and enjoy the process

You can’t rinse, or mash, too much

The finished product!

Dancers prepare backstage as the show begins

Waiting to go onstage

A dramatic moment in the story unfolds with acrobatic artistry and a touch of magic

An audience enjoys the show

Audiences have been small for the past year because the venue changed to a new location, but the change wasn’t communicated well. The website was out of date from November 2009 until this month, because nobody knew how to update it. Now you’ll find current information and a map (www.shadow-puppets.org).

A dancer holds candles backstage

Every weekend the show changes. Last Friday (when there pictures were taken) they performed Roussey Dek (Iron Bamboo), an artistic blend of dance, music, shadow puppets, and circus reminiscent of Cirque Du Soleil.