Ma Samaritaine, 2013
Born in 1985 in Paris, Sovan Philong cut his teeth in photography under the guidance of Mak Remissa and went on to join Studio Images. His put on his first exhibition at PPP in 2009, featuring the people living in a former Catholic chapel. This landed him a position on the Phnom Penh Post team. He left photojournalism to work on personal projects to indulge his passion for light: Computer Light Portraits and Moto’s Light, among others. Now a freelancer, he works on personal projects, takes orders and does some teaching.
In 2013, while studying at the École nationale supérieure Louis Lumière in Paris under a French government scholarship, he was given “carte blanche,” along with ten other young photographers, to do a series on the big changeover of Paris’ iconic department store La Samaritaine. The building covers a sprawling 80,000 m2. It’s a mythical venue in Paris, destined to become home to a luxury hotel, galleria, crèche and public housing. Sovan Philong developed an original project as he took a close look at details on the window panes. Not fettered to the description or monumental appearance of this heritage status art deco building, he showed Paris through the graffiti, the bits of adhesive tape, the dirty glass, the crisscross of sticky remnants. And he composed a progression in light that dialogues with the highlights of painting, between abstraction, realism, discovered work and luminous revelations.
FESTIVAL
Photo Phnom Penh 2013
November 30th – December 31st, 2013
http://www.institutfrancais-cambodge.com
