Mather Presents Cambodian Photos Taken by Trinity Students

Jacqueline Sparks '09

During the summer of 2008, 15 Trinity students went to Cambodia as part of the Cambodia in Context study abroad program. Nine of these students are featured in an exhibit in the Mather Art Gallery entitled, "Phnom Penh River Life". The goal of the exhibit is to "examine the central role that the Tonle Sap river system plays in the daily life of Phnom Penh, capital city of the Kingdom of Cambodia."

The show consists of about 20 untitled pictures; the photographs are only identified by the name of the photographer. This is a slight weakness; while there is something to be said for allowing the pictures to speak for themselves, someone unfamiliar with the scenes being depicted might be unclear about what is going on.

Perhaps the most eye-catching pictures were the ones with children in them. Allie Stein '11 took a picture showing a young girl holding a small bird on a stick. Positioned in the center of the back wall, it instantly draws the eye upon entering the space. Nathan Kirschbaum '09 has a picture displayed with a little girl taking a flower. The face of the little girl is the only one appearing in the picture, which makes exactly who she is taking the flower from nicely ambiguous. Another photograph by Stein shows children lounging on a dock over the river. One child was simply hanging, as though on monkey bars, over the river. It was unclear if he would actually swim or not.

Flowers were another common theme. Kirschbaum's photo of the young girl centers on a flower and the girl. Another picture along the same theme was senior Mark Rasmussen's photograph of several flower sellers. Contrasting with Kirschbaum's, the main subject was an older woman, instead of a young girl.

Another picture featuring a senior citizen was Weita Wu's '09 photograph of a man sweeping the sidewalk near a cafe. His traditional twig broom and the modern cafe show the contrast of contemporary life.

Most of the photographs felt very timeless; if people had had cameras, they could have been taken a thousand years ago instead of last summer. Perhaps the most notable exception to this is Wu's picture of two men sitting on a low wall, looking at their cell phones. While this does not give the same impression of changelessness that many of the other photographs do, it also helps anchor the show in the time of last summer. The other exception is senior Nora Becker's photograph, from behind, of a young man climbing into a car. For some reason, while other pictures also contain modern artifacts, these are the only ones that do not feel timeless.

Despite a description and a title that focuses on the Tonle Sap River, the river could only be directly seen in 11 of the 20 photographs. While it seems a safe assumption that much of the activity is occurring near the river, even if not directly seen, this is another place where captions or titles would have helped. The viewer was left to infer that the river was nearby.

Despite minor flaws, "Phnom Penh River Life" is an interesting student exhibit. It is a shame that few people know it is there, and when they do go to the second floor of Mather Hall, walk right by the pictures without noticing them.

"Phnom Penh River Life" runs in the Mather Art Gallery until Tuesday Feb. 24.