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Cambodia, Laos, New York, and beyond...PhotoForward arts and media programs empower artists and activists of all ages to share their own stories through photography, documentary film, community research, and mixed-media art. With cameras in their hands and the skills to create images that reflect their world, our artists are documenting their lives from their own perspectives and celebrating their community's history, while defining its future.
We need your help to keep our programs going and growing, so we can continue to educate, engage, and ignite creative communities in Cambodia, Laos, New York and beyond...
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM PHOTOFORWARD :
Culture Keepers Museum Exhibition
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SNAPSHOTS NEWSLETTER:
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Celebrating Women's Strengths & Stories in CambodiaOh, what a night! A huge crowd joined us on May 29th at Sister Srey Cafe in Siem Reap, Cambodia to celebrate women's stories and honor the 23 remarkable Cambodian photographers whose photographs and insights are featured in this new exhibition.
It was a terrific evening filled with good food, great people, inspiring artwork, and lots of joy and laughter, and we are deeply grateful to the whole Sister Srey team, our good friends at Journeys Within Our Community (JWOC), our generous supporters, and the ever-growing PhotoForward community for making this exhibition a huge success! If you're in Cambodia, you can catch the Celebrating Women's Strength & Stories exhibition at Sister Srey through June, or you can see the artists and their work in our online Gallery! |
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Photography Challenge and ExhibitionThe candidates for the Photo Challenge were tasked with using the skills they developed through our digital media workshops and peer mentorship to tell a compelling visual story about the lives of Cambodian women. From over 200 photographs submitted for the Challenge, our International Jury selected the following images and photo sets as the most successful for their creativity, skill, and beauty and for the strength of their visual storytelling.
Each artwork is accompanied by a portrait of the photographer as well as an artist statement providing insight into the subjects featured and social context about the lives of women and girls in modern Cambodia. |
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PhotoForward's work in Laos featured on Raw Travel TV!Robert Rose and the crew of Raw Travel TV visited the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Center (TAEC) museum in Luang Prabang, Laos to check-out the PhotoForward/TAEC partnership exhibition Caregivers to Culture Keepers: Stories from Women in a Changing Laos.
The Southeast Asia Road Trip episode, featuring our community media project, was aired on U.S. television in December and March 2016! Visit their website to learn more about this innovative, independently produced show that focuses on travel with a conscience, and click below to see an excerpt from the episode! |
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What a year it's been for PhotoForward!PhotoForward is celebrating another amazing year! We've established new partnerships, connected with new communities, expanded our team, shared our media makers' work in galleries and at community celebrations, and extended our local and global impact, including a feature on Raw Travel TV!
Check out the 2015 Snapshots Newsletter celebrating a year of creative collaboration and social change. Then click on the "donate" button to help keep us going and growing in 2016! |
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OUR VIEW, OUR STORY
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The Stitching Our Stories YouTube Page tops 40,000 Views!Join the thousands of people from around the globe who are "seeing the world through our lens" The Stitching Our Stories documentary videos are made by and about Lao women and reveal their lives and stories as they navigate their country's rapidly-changing cultural landscape. The films' topics include childbirth rituals, traditional medicine, shamanism, and endangered textile and handicraft traditions.
The Stitching Our Stories: Community Research Project was launched in October 2012 through a partnership of PhotoForward and the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre, a private museum in Luang Prabang, Laos. This trail-blazing program engages women and girls from Laos' diverse ethnic communities in documentary photography, digital video, and community research that explores their unique cultural heritage, the vital roles that women play, and the often-seismic impact that modernization is having on traditional beliefs and practices. |
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Through Our Lens:
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"Why Photography?" PhotoForward at the United Nations Commission on the Status of WomenIn communities that face dire economic and social inequality, what role can a media arts program possibly play? Why does it matter? That was the subject of PhotoForward's presentation at the 2014 UN Commission on the Status of Women, "Why Photography? Engagement, Empowerment, and Action through the Arts". The panel was part of a parallel event organized by the Women's Caucus for Art.
Because most of our artists could not attend the event, audience members were asked to read the photographers' responses to the question "Why photography?" Their statements illustrate the impact of media arts programs in their lives and their communities and the role of art in empowering women. Audience members were also asked to share their own responses to the question "Why art?" which were Tweeted and Tumbled throughout the conference under the hashtags #WCA_WHYART and #CSW58 |
The UN presentation celebrated the work of PhotoForward artists from Laos, Cambodia, and New York and featured a spoken word performance, written for the event, by youth photographer and poet Meri Marabyan.
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1,600+ Visitors at the Asia Society Texas Center Opening!Forty photographs created by Lao women and girls in PhotoForward's Stitching Our Stories: Community Research Project, developed in partnership with the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) in Luang Prabang, Laos, are featured at the Asia Society Texas Center in Houston. The exhibition opened on November 7th and was attended by more than 1,600 visitors on the first night alone! Visit the ASTC website for more information and images from the exhibit.
The exhibit depicts moments in the lives of women from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Through their photographs, our artists invite us into their homes and communities and offer an intimate glimpse of the vital and varied roles that women play in Lao society as well as the often seismic impact that modernization is having on traditional beliefs and practices. |
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Stitching Our Stories at the 2013 & 2014
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Hmong medicine woman, Ms. Mai, explaining how she learned her skill through training and by dreaming the medicines that she uses to cure her community.
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