The twelfth edition of the Photo Phnom Penh Festival presents Kleng Bonreach.
After graduating from college, Bonreach lost her father to leukemia. A huge void, devastating for the whole family. The young woman put on the clothes her father wore, both to honor her memory, to bring a form of comfort to her mother, to materialize a missing presence. At the same time a work of mourning, a metaphorical reincarnation, a ritual of sharing, the series is constructed as a journey through the places that were the places the father traveled, those where he worked, those he loved. The color is always ineffective, without too much intensity and small sequences reproduce the course of the light or the advance of Bonreach, barefoot, in his father’s blue canvas pants. No matter where the missing father is today, he is always there for his daughter, he is there like the permanence of his shadow.
Born in 1995 in Battambang, Kleng Bonreach pursued her Masters in Education while working as a teacher in a public school in Phnom Penh. Photography helps him to connect with humans and nature, allows him to express his emotions and becomes a form of relaxation in relation to his profession. This series, the result of his participation in the workshop organized by Photo Phnom Penh Association with Philong Sovan, is the first serious photographic experience, and won the Special Mention in the Still Image category for the virtual exhibition Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize at Singapore.
Kleng Bonreach (Cambodge)
L’Ombre de mon Père
Galerie de l’Institut français du Cambodge
Photo Phnom Penh Festival 2021
26 NOV, 2021 – 15 JAN, 2022
