A man taking a nap on his cyclo; a Khmer family chilling in an open space which resembles a theatre set; a bright red door that you are not supposed to open which discloses something decaying but terribly fascinating. That’s the unpredictable magic of life and it is the task of a good photographer to capture the moment and share it with the world. Michael Klinkhamer, a photographer from Holland, never goes anywhere without his beloved Nikon: “You never know what you can find out there!”
Following an exhibition focusing on Cambodians, the photographer turned his zoom lens to the surprising nature of the Kingdom of Wonders. In a new solo show, Pure Thomacheat (‘Pure Nature’), he explores Cambodian nature in its purest beauty as well as in its most fragile and declining aspects, where life and death co-exist. “The difficult side of taking pictures of nature is that photos can easily turn into a cliché, so for me it was more about looking into the drama of nature. Cambodia is a place where pure beauty can be found everywhere, but like most precious things in life, it is also struggling for survival.”
Prints measuring more than a metre in size have a powerful impact on the viewer. Some shots have an irresistibly poetic touch, like the photo of a small child gazing into the camera while cradling an enormous lotus leaf. This particular picture, taken during one of Klinkhamer’s photography workshops, now serves as the exhibition’s manifesto. “I was shooting with some people in a lotus field when a group of children came towards us and we started playing together. After all the fun I walked away, then I looked back and I saw a boy standing there holding a big leaf. I knew immediately that was the essential photo.”
Klinkhamer was 22 when he got his first camera. During a trip to San Francisco in the early ‘80s, he found himself caught up in a protest against the movie Cruising, in which a cop played by Al Pacino goes undercover to catch a serial killer in New York’s gay S&M scene. Newsweek printed several of his shots and he has since worked with fellow shutterbugs of note, Peter Hill Beard, Bert Stern and Tim Page.
His latest images, he says, are messages in a bottle addressed to the young generation of city dwellers who have forgotten how to look at – and listen to the voice of – nature. “Sometimes in the forest, the silence gets so deafening that your ears start to squeak. You can only hear the blood running, a few seconds later some animal starts screaming and then you have 10,000 little creatures united in a choral call pervading the whole forest.”
WHO: Michael Klinkhamer
WHAT: Pure Thomacheat (‘Pure Nature’) photo exhibition opening
WHERE: The Insider Gallery, InterContinental Hotel, #296 Mao Tse Tung Blvd.
WHEN: 6pm May 29 – June 28
WHY: “A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.” – Dorothea Lange