The results of PhotoPhnomPenh’s experimental pairing of local photographers with their foreign counterparts is set to bear fruit this coming weekend

A WORKSHOP pairing international photographers with local counterparts is set to bear fruit this weekend as part of the PhotoPhnomPenh festival.

The grand finale of the festival is the “Night of the Year” – a huge public presentation of photographic works on 12 screens in Wat Botum park. The results of the past week’s “Intersections” collaboration between local and visiting artists will be on display for all to see – and even festival director Christian Caujolle doesn’t quite know what to expect.

“It’s a risk,” he concedes. “I hope to be surprised. I have no idea at all about what the result is going to be.”

Twelve photographers – all of whom have also had their work individually exhibited as part of the festival – are participating in the workshop, which the French Cultural Centre hopes “will offer an opportunity for meaningful discussion on the visual environment of Phnom Penh”.

They will be doing so while tackling themes as diverse as “Sports and Entertainment in the Streets” and “Traces of Water”.

Caujolle is confident that each artist will explore Phnom Penh using his own distinctive approach, bearing influences from his country of origin in the work.

The pairings have included Cambodia’s Heng Ravuth with Korean photographer Sean Lee capturing “Portraits of Young People”, and Thai photographer Ampanee Satoh working with local Chin Taingchhea looking at “Buildings” in Phnom Penh.

The somewhat misleadingly named Night of the Year is actually presented over the festival’s two climactic nights – the forthcoming weekend of December 5 and 6. Activities will commence at 6pm in the park next to Wat Botum (near the coloured fountains).

{smoothgallery folder=images/stories/news/national/2009/091203/slideshow&width=558&height=430&sort=asc}