I took this photo one November morning in a town called Siem Reap, Cambodia (the home of Angkor Wat). It was early in the morning, around 6am, with an unusual bite of chill to the air. I was walking downtown to the market to try to rustle up some breakfast and as was my habit at the time my camera was always within arms reach.
Now there was nothing particularly unusual about the content of this scene, which is perhaps the most disturbing aspect of it (to those at least who have been to Cambodia). But I saw instantly it would make a strong composition and so I clicked off the shot.
There are thousands, or more, children like this in Cambodia. Some don’t have families, some just have families that simply can’t care for them, many become the bread winners for their families by having to work long hours selling trinkets and so forth to tourists, or just simply sitting in the streets begging (children are always recruited for these tasks as they extract far more pity from the tourists). Yet others are smuggled in from neighbouring countries from villages even poorer than here and forced into such things as prostitution, slavery etc Even girls as young as ten or under can be forced into prostitution…it’s a pretty horrible thing to contemplate but just think about that for a second…
I have many aims with Art of Imagery, one of them is to hopefully do some good for the world in an area where in this day and age, with all the wealth we have in the world, far too little is currently being done. There really is no excuse for children to be sleeping in gutters and going without food and basic medical attention while so many others upgrade their BMW’s and browse ebay for the latest mega big mega flat mega expensive plasma tv.
I urge you to help me make a little bit of a difference. Please think about signing up, you’ll not only be helping the kids in Cambodia but also supporting the artists that contribute their beautiful work here. I’ve made the price very affordable do it doesn’t even have to be a decision. Also remember that a full 50% of all monies that come in to the site go back to the artists. And 25% of the remainder go to charities that help the children in Cambodia get off the streets and into homes and classrooms.
And if you are a photographer with some skill in shooting the nude then by submitting some work to this site you’ll be helping it grow. In doing so you’ll not only be earning an ongoing passive income for your efforts but you’ll also be adding to a work of beauty that I hope can also do very good things for the world.
