“Sacred Legacy” Photo Exhibition held in Phnom Penh

By Soy Sophea

The American “Sacred Legacy” photo exhibition was on display at the Sovanna Shopping Centre Phnom Penh, early last week. The photo exhibition was organized by the Embassy of the United States in Cambodia. It has been held from June 14-29, 2008. The full title reads “Sacred Legacy: Edward Curtis and the North American Indian”.

“The subject matter was fascinating and it was well worth a second look to see long-lost photos on display in a modern setting,” said a Cambodian professional photographer, casting an educated eye over the images of the past on display in the shopping mall.

Mak Remissa, a photographer with 12 years professional experience, could not contain his enthusiasm when he saw the free-to-enter photo gallery visit Phnom Penh. He has also seen the exhibition in Canada, France, and the United States.

Sao Phearak, an architecture student said that he was impressed with the vision displayed by the American photographer Edward Curtis who devoted his life to taking photographs that captured images of a fast disappearing way of life.

Phearak said that he wanted to see Cambodian photographers to do the same, focusing their lenses on the indigenous peoples of North East Cambodia—Rattanakiri, Mondolkiri provinces.

Joseph A. Mussomeli, the US Ambassador to Cambodia, said that the exhibition illustrates the broad and extraordinary diversity among the indigenous peoples of North America. He said that the exhibition featured 60 photographs that many people consider the definitive images of the North American Indians—celebrating the native peoples of North America, their history and their culture.

“The exhibition’s sixty museum-quality fine art photographic prints are recreations of an extremely rare process originally employed by Curtis for his most prized images. He used various papers and processes that combined materials such as silver, platinum, various pigments and so on,” said the US Ambassador.

The Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An said that the exhibition was a great symbol of the friendship between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Cambodia. He also admired the photographer’s ability to create stunningly rich visual impressions some one hundred years after their images were created.

In his lifetime, Edward Curtis created 45,000 photographic images of Native Americans, constituting the most comprehensive ethnographic record of this society.

His pictures are serene and hauntingly beautiful. They depict men and women in their daily routines, with their animals, becoming one with their surroundings and nature.