DAYS OF LIGHT
Photo Exhibition by Peter Oxley
June 2 - July 6, 2018
Taken on travels around the countryside, this collection of arresting images by Peter Oxley shows ordinary people going about their daily lives and in so doing presents a vibrant portrait of Cambodia. Through these iconic images we see the country striving to recover its lost heritage and rebuild the basics of nationhood from the ravages of a genocidal war that saw up to 2,000,000 people lose their lives. The exhibit is also Peter Oxley's homage to the Cambodian people and their extraordinary resilience, optimism, indomitable spirit, natural grace, stoical dignity, and remarkable capacity to smile and radiate happiness even when faced with daunting challenges. As Peter says: "I wanted to take photos of happy people (too many Western photographers focus on the negative aspects of Third World countries) and, if truth be told, they weren't that difficult to find." Taken over a three-year period, the photographs were featured as a six-month show at the Angkor National Museum, followed by two months at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Siem Reap and a further month at the FCC in Phnom Penh, during the years 2011-2013. Although some eight years have passed since the images were taken, much of rural Cambodia remains the same, even if material wealth has trickled down from the fast-developing urban centers, bringing with it the questionable benefits of contemporary western progress such as motor vehicles, television, cell phones and the Internet.
Born in London, Peter Oxley has lived in Asia since the 1980s, working in diverse fields ranging from advertising to publishing to photography. He worked at the Japan Times, was Tokyo city editor for wcities.com, the world's first online city guide, and represented World Entertainment Network News (WENN) in Japan. As a photographer, his work has appeared in such publications as Time and Newsweek. He has regularly partnered with writer Virgil Calaguian, who produced and curated this exhibit, on articles covering a wide variety of topics including art, culture, history, architecture, travel, food, gardens, fashion, interior design, contemporary lifestyle, motor sports, movies and movie stars. From 2008 to 2014, Peter resided in Cambodia, where he built and owned a multi-awarded boutique hotel in Siem Reap, also in partnership with Virgil Calaguian. A permanent resident of Japan, Peter presently resides in Kamakura, where he is working on a picture book that will showcase the beauty of the historical town through the four seasons. He also runs photo tours to the temples, shrines, and gardens under the moniker Samurai Phototours. www.samuraiphototours.com
The Exhibition Committee