Tucked deep within the Southeast Asian jungles of Cambodia lies the city of Angkor, home to some 15 million inhabitants — who lived more than 700 years ago. The cultural relics of this lost civilization constitute possibly the most spectacular architectural ruins on earth. For example, the temple of Angkor Wat is the largest temple in the world and contains a volume of stone greater than the Cheops pyramid of Egypt.
Unfortunately, Cambodia isn’t the most convenient vacation destination: Tourists must acquire vaccinations and visas from Cambodian embassies before they enter the country.
Fortunately, the University community has the opportunity to experience the ancient ruins through the eyes of world-renowned photographer Kenro Izu and his exhibit “Light Over Ancient Angkor.” The Cultural Forum procured this coveted exhibit for the Adell McMillan Art Gallery starting today and lasting through April 16.
Daniel Karp, the Cultural Forum’s visual arts coordinator, said Izu’s work stood out not only for its visual quality but also because of the artist himself.
Izu, who is Japanese, relocated to New York City because photography is not usually respected as high art in Japan, Karp said. However, some of America’s most respected visual artists are photographers.
When Izu stumbled upon Angkor, he was struck by the challenge of photographing an area that had never been caught on film.
“Kenro Izu devoted four years of his life to photographing Angkor,” Karp said. “Then he used the sale of the prints to create an organization called Friends Without a Border, which created one of the first children’s hospitals in Cambodia.”
Furthermore, the photographs in the McMillan Art Gallery are not reproductions or prints, Karp said, but the original photographs.
The photographs’ significance goes beyond the aesthetic quality of the images. Jeffrey Barlow is a professor of history at Pacific University in Forest Grove; he will be giving a lecture March 7 on the history of Angkor. Barlow said Cambodia and its cultural past is relevant to Americans because of the effects of the Vietnam War on Cambodian society.
“Cambodia got screwed over during the Vietnam War,” he said. “They were the drive-by victims … just standing around minding their own business.”
Barlow said the Angkor ruins, which were discovered by French colonialists, received only minimal damage during the war. “The monuments were not systematically bombed,” he said. “There was just some military vandalism.”
The project of photographing the temples at Angkor would be difficult, Barlow said, because of its huge size. “It’s a really beautiful area. I’m excited to see the exhibit because I’ve heard [the photographs] really do it justice,” he said.
The elegant details of the photographs stem not only from their unique subject but also from the interesting developing process. A 1996 profile of Izu in the New York Times described “the laborious platinum-palladium printmaking process [and the] custom-made camera that produces 14-by-20 inch negatives.”
Mark Hudson, a graduate student in sociology, happened to see the exhibit by chance in the McMillan Gallery. He said that he knew very little about photography but was impressed with the exhibit, nonetheless.
“The details in the pictures are absolutely incredible,” he said. Angkor “looks like a really amazing place.”
The opening reception for “Lights Over Ancient Angkor” will take place at 7 p.m. March 7 in the EMU Oak Room. The evening will begin with a lecture by Professor Barlow and will feature catered food and live music. Best of all, the event is absolutely free.