Wandering the wet markets of Phnom Penh,and watching the people go about their hard daily lives. is my not so secret obsession.
These people appear to have such hard lives, they work constantly and I have the privaledge of documents that time to the best of my ability.
Man, Woman and child all working and trying to make a decent life for themselves. Up early close late. Fresh fruit and Vegitables, live fish and sea food, freshly slaughtered pigs and live chickens all to be made ready for those who buy.
Phnom Penh city is a changing place with all the new and apparently empty, for the most part, high rise structures, offices, apartment, condos.
Little thought or planning as to where and how these new structures are placed and how they will fit into the local area, it all seems very higgle de piggledee. Palace next to hovel.
Buildings seem to be getting taller and taller, big and shiny but with IMO little charecter and I sometimes wonder about their foundations and safety. Fire could be a big problem considering the ill equipped fire services here. Towering Inferno, the movie, comes to mind.
Money, money, money is what its all about, getting the most revenue from the smallest amount of valuable land, going skywards is the only way. I does beg the question, how do you make money from and empty building that few can afford to rent.
Covid 19, until recent months following the illegal escape from quarenteen by 4 Asia working girls from th hotel that they were supposed to stay for 14 days. After they bribed their way out of quarenteen the hit the nigh clubs and bars and spent time with various individuals. When they were recaotured it was found that 2 of them were positive for Covid 19. It had begun.
The Hotel from which they escaped
Following this initial community infection the powers that be attempted to isolate the infection with selective lockdowns and quarenteens, without good effect and the infection was spreading rapidly in many areas of the city. The eventually led to the closure of the markets and certain other places where the infection was spreading rapidly by contact. A night curfew was implimented and all bars, restaurants, KTV’s and night club were eventually closed for initially a period of 2 weeks.
Movement around the city was restricted and travel to other provinces was stopped. Face masks become compulsory and advice about hygiene and cleaning hands given. Social distancing was introduced. Number were rising rapidly and there had been a number of associated deaths.
Masks quickly become the new ”norm”. The authorities even distributing the to those who could not afford to buy them.
By this time it was becoming rapidly apparent that the lockdowns, although slowing the spread, they were not stopping the increase in numbers affected. An extended period of lockdown, in specific areas where the infection rates were highest was implimented. The vaccination program was started in earnest.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Royal Government of Cambodia for making vaccines available to those X Pats living and working in Cambodia.
I’ve been asked recently to write a little article for the NEM Magazine and have chosen a topic that has come to the fore-front in my life recently. As most of you on NEM’s know, I do digital art. One of my images has recently become the center of a small battle. In essence, the owner of the subject of my image took an interest in buying the copyright of the image to be used as a branding tool for her business and her project involving the subject of the image. This is the first time I have been approached for something like this and I do admit to being somewhat naive. This person was first receptive to negotiating a price for the copyright, then a day later decided that she didn’t want to pay the price and was going to have someone else reproduce the same image. She demanded that I turn over my photos and threatened me with trespassing (I was invited along to shoot the subject at the time) to try and get these images (especially my art) for free. As a result, I’ve had the opportunity to research copyright laws here in Canada in order to protect myself and my work. I want to share what I’ve learned with you so that you can protect what is yours too. Now, laws do differ from country to country, but I believe the essence may be the same. The way that I understand it (and I’m not a lawyer so do your own research!!) is that if you take the picture with your own camera, then the picture belongs to you. You own the copyright of that image. Now, if you work for a company and are doing the photography as an employee for your employer, then the copyright and images belong to them, not to you. Are you with me so far? If you took the photo for yourself using your own equipment, then the photo is yours. Your work is automatically copyrighted. You don’t need to register it with the government. However, you can still do so to further protect yourself, and to give you official documentation for court, if you ever need it. It just strengthens your claim. The cost to do so at this time is $50.00 and can be done at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office online. Here is their website: http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr00003.html
This now leads into another topic – what can you do with your images? Not a heck of a lot is the answer. In order to DO something with your image, as in selling them, you need a release form signed. If you didn’t get a release, then the images cannot be used to for commercial purposes. There are two types of releases that you can obtain and SHOULD obtain when you shoot an image.
The first type of release form is a Model release. A model release is a contract that says that you the consent of the people in your image to photograph them and use the images for commercial purposes. It doesn’t have to refer only to selling an image itself, but it also refers to using the image of that person for advertisement purposes. For example, if you run a website for advertising your wedding photography business and have some really cool photos of a bride that you’d like to post, you need a release. It doesn’t only refer to a full frontal of the person either – but it also relates to anything that someone could recognise as being a part of that person – say the hands, or a silhouette. The second type of release form is a Property release. This would refer to any recognisable OBJECT, like a dog belonging to someone, a public building, etc. You can shoot Uncle Joe’s house from the sidewalk, but if you do it from the front yard, you need a release. If you want to sell your photo you will need a release.
When do you not need a release? One reason is for editorial purposes. You can sell the image to a magazine, newspaper, television show as long as it’s used in conjunction with a story. Just to sum things up, here is what I’ve learned:
● You take the image with your own equipment, for yourself, then you own the copyright ● Get property and model releases before you take that first click. You never know when something you take will suddenly have a real value assigned to it. If you don’t get your releases, then you may regret it later. ● Photos/images can command quite a lot of money. There are calculators out there on the internet to give you an idea of a price – they can range from $500-several thousand $$ per use of the image, depending on the size needed, the amount of subscribers they have, if it’s colour or black and white and the demand for your subject. ● NEVER sell your copyright – don’t let someone else profit off of your work. Sell them a licence instead. There is never a need to sell a copyright.
Remember: knowledge is power. Look up your rights as a photographer in your country and protect yourself and your work. You never know when you’ll need to stand up for yourself and the better prepared you are, the better you’ll be able to do it.
Here are a few sites to check out on the internet:
In these days because of the Covid pandemic and the restrictions in movement you may find yourself unable, or unwilling, to venture out and take new images. Now is a good time to gather your previous years of images and look for images that you may not have worked on before or need to be redone.
Too this end I have rediscoved images that I had forgotten about or just wanted to have another go at processing them differently. I have many 100’s of thousands of images that I feel deserved to be looked over again and now have the time to do it because of Covid.
When I scour my images I try to find images that I may have overlooked in my initial high grading and use them as a basis for tracking other images down. I have about 7TB of images stored and there are many that have never been really looked at (or printed).
The Covid 19 pandemic has almost brought the world to a standstill. For many people in the world they are suffering lockdowns and economic deprivation. Business is disappearing as people cannot see the end to the pandemic.
Lots of Building work has been reduced or stopped
Cambodia is also suffering, but due to the quick and timely reaction of the Cambodia government, has suffered few Covid infections. The economy is suffering and the people who relie on that economy (textiles, shoe making and tourism) are suffering also.
Tourist numbers to see the wonders of Angkor I am told have dropped and many Hotels in Siem Reap have ceased trading for the moment
Once thriving businesses have closed, some believe permanently, hotels with no customers are left deserted, 70+% of the factory workers find themselves unemployed with no social systems to fall back on, many have returned, I am told, to their old homes in the provinces.
Cambodia has had a total of 272 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The Cambodian Ministry of Education has agreed to a three-phase plan for reopening educational institutions in the 2020-2021 academic year to include 20 schools approved to reopen in August 2020.
Grocery stores, restaurants, and other services remain generally available. The Cambodian government has restricted the operation of certain businesses, such as cinemas, karaoke, and entertainment clubs (bars, discos, beer gardens).
Large meetings or gatherings, such as parties or religious gatherings, are banned until September 2020.
People can still travel to and from Cambodia but must adhere to the restrictions laid down by the Cambodian government.
We must wait and see how things will develop over time but I fear recovery will be slow and difficult as Cambodia is affected by the International situation re Covid 19.
Every year since 2013/14 I have be invited to spend the week with the forPeace house building team on there quest to finish houses donated to poor families in the Cambodia countryside. Covid 19 interupted the seasonal job as 2020 had o be cancelled. Hopefully 2021 will happen.
a world without pictures is like coffee without cream and sugar, bitter 