Georgetown Festival Penang kicks off on the Malaysian island of Penang in two days and we’ll be there! The month-long arts festival is jam-packed with events, exhibitions, screenings, and installations. It’s our first trip in 15 years and we can’t wait to get back. Our work is kind of crazy. It’s nothing new to us, … Read more
An apsara dance show is a priority for most visitors to Cambodia’s Siem Reap. The Sacred Dancers of Angkor, the original apsara dance performance, offers a more authentic experience in the form of an incredibly enchanting performance, as well as the chance to support the preservation of this ancient art form. A precursor to the entertaining spectacle that is … Read more
Sometimes, as a photographer, you go to an event where you think you might be able to make good photographs for your story, but when you arrive you just know that it’s not going to work. That’s what happened when we were staying at the gorgeous Amansara resort in Siem Reap where there was a dance … Read more
Musings on the nature of tourism spectacles, performances that are artificially constructed and commodified for the tourist gaze, and the notion of authenticity when we travel. This is the metanarrative of my previous post, I suppose, so perhaps you’d better take a read of that one first, if this is to make sense. No matter … Read more
It’s hard to escape the apsara in Siem Reap. The celestial nymph is everywhere we look. Clad in silk and a colossal golden headdress, she seductively adorns temple walls in the form of elaborate carvings, or in human form as a graceful and distant dancer performing the Dance of the Apsara Divinities. The Apsara is … Read more