Siv Cheng focuses on documentary style
Roth Meas
SIV Cheng, 31, one of the documentary-style photographers taking part in the ‘‘Bamboo Shoots’’ exhibition, profiles four poor families in Cambodia for the show. Two live on the border between Cambodia and Vietnam, one in a suburb of Phnom Penh and the other in Kandal province.
“I spend a day with each family, researching, before I start shooting pictures. I introduce the family to myself and the project and make them understand my purpose, so they don’t doubt me anymore,” Siv Cheng said.
After she gains permission, Siv Cheng stays two days with each family observing their day-to-day activities.
“Even if they live in a ruined hut, I stay with them,” she said.
“I eat the same food as them, and sleep next to them.
While they are going about their activities, I take pictures, so they are more natural.”
One of the families taught Siv Cheng about the life of the poor people. She said the family was miserable because the mother suffered a stroke and was now paralysed. The father is also disabled, and their 10-year-old daughter must cross the border to beg for money to feed the whole family.
“The girl has a big burden,” Siv Cheng said. “She has to earn money for family on one hand, and on the other she also has to cook for her disabled parents. It stops her from getting an education, and her health is not great, either.”
Siv Cheng is a photography student at the French Cultural Centre, and a relatively new addition to the On Photography Cambodia family.
SIV Cheng, 31, one of the documentary-style photographers taking part in the ‘‘Bamboo Shoots’’ exhibition, profiles four poor families in Cambodia for the show. Two live on the border between Cambodia and Vietnam, one in a suburb of Phnom Penh and the other in Kandal province.
“I spend a day with each family, researching, before I start shooting pictures. I introduce the family to myself and the project and make them understand my purpose, so they don’t doubt me anymore,” Siv Cheng said.
After she gains permission, Siv Cheng stays two days with each family observing their day-to-day activities.
“Even if they live in a ruined hut, I stay with them,” she said.
“I eat the same food as them, and sleep next to them.
While they are going about their activities, I take pictures, so they are more natural.”
One of the families taught Siv Cheng about the life of the poor people. She said the family was miserable because the mother suffered a stroke and was now paralysed. The father is also disabled, and their 10-year-old daughter must cross the border to beg for money to feed the whole family.
“The girl has a big burden,” Siv Cheng said. “She has to earn money for family on one hand, and on the other she also has to cook for her disabled parents. It stops her from getting an education, and her health is not great, either.”
Siv Cheng is a photography student at the French Cultural Centre, and a relatively new addition to the On Photography Cambodia family.
