Best of everything for 2006
Meilleurs vœux pour le nouvel an.

A postcard from my archives

Well, this is the time for well wishing all around… and I could not resist to use this picture of Bai Ling I took a couple of years ago while working on the set of the movie Beautiful Country on a beach near Nha Trang in Vietnam.
Also to remind you that is the best time of the year for nice outdoor light around Asia.
Since that Bai Ling has done a lot better on the pages of Playboy magazine… with another photographer.
That will be my new year postcard for you all…

Exhibition in Luang Prabang

Works from the book: Luang Prabang Watercolors by Somboon Phoungdorkmai that I published just a year ago are on show at the beautiful traditional house of a friend (Francis Engelmann) in Luang Prabang (Laos). The exhibition will go until early February in this World Heritage city and the house is next the Elephant restaurant. Original artworks and 'giclée' prints are on sale as well as the book.

New book on Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang in Northern Laos is a former Royal capital and a favorite destination for an ever increasing number of people. It's a charming little town doted with numerous pagodas and tucked between the Mekong and Nam Kan rivers. It has been a World Heritage site for the past 10 years. This small picture book (priced $16) is an intrduction to the place and a perfect small gift to bring back. Pictures by Roland Neveu and text by Ben Davis.

Movie poster from old job

Finaly, a movie for which I shot the stills back in 2002 had his US release last summer.
Beautiful Country was shot in Vietnam (and a small part in the US) with Nick Nolte, Tim Roth, Bai Ling and directed by Norwegian Hans Petter Moland. The movie was ealier entered in Berlin Film Festival, Toronto Festival and other but failed to attrack the big crowd…Nevertheless there is some very good acting by Damien Nguyen (playing Binh). The good part was 10 weeks shooting in Vietnam and friendly and sensual actress Bai Ling on the set…

Pictures & Angkor Festival

This is a wall of prints of my book Years of Turmoil at the Carnets d'Asie gallery in Siem Reap (above).
And probably the most interesting evening show was at the newly opened Hotel de la Paix (below).

Angkor Photography Festival

The event takes place in Siem Reap-Cambodia just next to the famed historical site. My new edition of the book (Years of Turmoil) should be ready in the next few days and will launched at an event on next Sunday 23 at "Carnets d'Asie" along with the exhibition of a dozen images (50x70cm) from the book. A number of books will be available for sale [US$28] and signing as well. In the course of the event I hope to find sponsorship for publishing this book in the Khmer language and have it distributed for free in Cambodian schools and libraries.
It is nice to know that old pal Patrick Chauvel will be here as well with a new book (SKY). The week of event (festival site) is the first of its kind in the region and is taking place beside the week of workshops organized by the photo agency VII.

Pilgrims of Wat Tham Boya

Every year, at the occasion of the Khao Phansa festival in Thailand (the Buddhist Lent), anyone can go to meditate in a Pagoda. It can just be to get away from your daily routine, or make good on a vow like to quit smoking.
Usually people living in cities would take on that opportunity as a number of pagodas and revered places have basic infrastructures to welcome the devotees. A number of cave systems across the country are also popular and offer a safe refuge from the elements and mundane disturbances.
In this case the favored place is a large cave system in Central Thailand named Wat Tham Boya which measure about 120 meter in lengths and at part 20 meter's high and was discovered 50 years ago. It's entrance marked by a sacred tree, is halfway up the hill above a pagoda and can be access by a fight of a couple of hundred steps adorned with gilded statues and small shrines. Here, mostly women come to meditate as the facilities are rather good. A huge gilded Buddha statue, about ten meters in height sits near the entrance and there are another half dozen small shrines adorned with Indu gods at other corners of the cave. The place has been fitted with tents and it resemble a wild underground camping site.
People spend their time praying alone or in group at different small shrines, reading and sleeping. Since one of the main feature of the Khao Phansa festival is the making and setting of big candles at the places of worship, we can see the statues adorned with often more than a meter high candles which have been carried up there for the occasion.
The pictures are available at ONASIA.

Happiness is a bath away...

Yeah, but shooting a pretty girl in a milky bath filled with flowers is just as hard a job as any. Just think of all those mirrors with 3 Broncolor lights in the bathroom, myself and another couple of people throwing the flowers and pampering the model...it's became a really tight space. The Plaza-Athenee Bangkok provided one of their suite for the shoot done for a new product: an all-in-one 'milky bath with orchids or roses specially dried petals'.

[art to art] gallery shoot in Bangkok

Another day, another experience; this time shooting bronze sculpture from friend artist Valérie Andrianoff. A little more than 2 dozen pieces. The Nikon D2X has been very handy for that type of work in studio environment for catching all the contours and relief of the pieces. Valérie's art is beautiful and comes in many colors (from white to black bronze finish). This new permanent exhibition here in Bangkok at the 'art to art' gallery in the O.P. Place next to the Oriental hotel is worth the detour.

Luang Prabang trip

The "Capital" of North Laos, a unique small town, also a World Site Heritage always offer glimpses of beauty and serenity to the traveller. There for preparing a couple of exhibitions (one of the 'Watercolours' from Somboon and one of pictures from the book 'Laos: A Journey Beyond the Mekong' by Ben Davies) I found time to take a few snaps… and this is one on my favorites.

Black Market book contribution

It maybe worth to mention that I was the Photo Editor for this book published by Earth Aware Editions in the US. It was an interesting experience to work with other photographer's images, Ben Davies (who researched and wrote the book) and Adam Oswell who produced it. Almost all the pictures I selected made it in the book, although the cover was not of my choice. And I must mention here that Paul Hilton (not a relative of Paris...) based in Hong Kong gave a real good performance on short notice. The book is unique and available at Amazon.com and we just had a launch here in Bangkok at the FCCT, on Tiger Day with the presence of Wild Aid.

Stock images at OnAsia

Finally (that what Peter Charlesworth could say!) I have captioned almost one thousand pictures mostly archive stuff to put Online at Onasia. Also brought several hundred recent images from China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore (all ready and captioned!). I still have to go though thousands of stock images I got back from Getty/Gamma-Liaison last year, got to be patient there...

Cambodia book re-designed out soon

My book 'CAMBODIA: the years of turmoil' which was first publish in 2000 has gone through a facelift and will be out soon. Almost by popular demand as the first edition has sold out.
The new version is a little smaller (A4 size) will have 160 pages, duotone printing. Several new pictures were added (which were lost for a number of years and has been retrieved from Gamma) and a number of pages were re-designed.
A soft cover version is in printing now and will retail for us$29,50 (much less than the first edition with its hard cover).
The distribution will cover Southeast Asia, as for the first edition. If distributors in other parts of the world are interested, I'll be please to accommodate their orders (shipping out of Bangkok). The book will also be available online from Asia Horizons Books website (more on this at a later date).

Exhibition in Stockholm in 2004

Well, this is a little old news, but as I told earlier I've to catch up on a few things... and this is one of them. It was a great experience and a great trip as I had the chance to spend my week and half in freezing Stockholm with Philip Blenkinsop who is a really nice fellow. The exhibitions were certainly of interest but the entire event (Making Differences) was overshadowed by the controversy brought with the Amit Goren installation. Anyway I think now that it's time to look for venues of that scale to exhibit my work. This is probably a chance to pass on the message to long time friend Alain Mingam who seems to have more connections in this world than anyone...
rn

About a recent book I designed & published

Luang Prabang is a World Heritage Site in North LAOS
This book which is available in bookstores in Asia presents the work of a Thai artist Somboon Phoungdorkmai and was originally commissioned by the Thai Lao Friendship Association. We eventually had the book printed with the help of Thai Airways airline which now flies to that city from Chiang Mai. The book is also on sale (us$36) at hotel boutiques and several locations in Luang Prabang.
Of course I will have to use this blog to do some catch up with news, and in fact there are several other books in the pipeline and I'll have preview very soon here...…
rn

another one bites the blog virus

Hi all!
That's about time to get on the bandwagon…from the buzzing city of Bangkok, which has been my home for more than 10 years, the plan is to get back into the circle of shooters (a usefull link to get acquaintance my website). For a number of years having dedicated time to publishing Asia Horizons Books has given me the urge to go back to my first passion and once again compete for exposure in a difficult field.
The coming of age on my friends' photo agency OnAsia makes it a perfect setting and will certainly help breaking the routine of the laid back lifestyle offered by the Indochinaa backdrop.
With the help of now almost film quality digital photography, it feel certainly comfortable to get out and shoot, the gratification is instant. The acquisition of the NIKON D2x makes for a big part of my renewed interest.
Well, that's a re-start which bring to memory my earlier first jump into the trade in the seventies when the communication tool of choice was the Telex machine, sitting hours, usually at night, in central post-offices around the globe, punching that little white paper tape… I'm having the feeling of being on another planet right now!
Feels great!
rn