Mimi Palgen-Maisonneuve

Mimi Palgen-Maisonneuve (1918−1995) was a photographer and a journalist with Radio-Cambodge, active in Cambodia during the decades 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Married to Jacques Palgen, a professor of geodesy and photogrammetry as well as a scientific consultant with the United Nations, Mimi extensively traveled through Southeast Asia and the Far East. Her work in Cambodia covers Angkor restoration, daily life in the cities and countryside, with an emphasis on women and ethnic minorities, in particular the Khmer Leu (mountain tribes of the Northeast).

The major part of her photoprints is archived at the MimiJac Palgen Memorial Collection, Arizona State University (ASU) Library. See a photo selection on Angkor Database.

1) Mimi Palgen-Maisonneuve with two young Phneung women, Northeast Cambodia, circa 1952 [MimiJac Palgen Cambodian Photographs Collection, ASU]. 2) Climbing the Thnot (sugar palm tree), photographer unknown [Mimi Palgen Memorial Collection, reproduced in Nicholas Coffill, Photography in Cambodia, 2023, p 23]. 

1) Mimi Palgen-Maisonneuve with two young Phneung women, Northeast Cambodia, circa 1952 [MimiJac Palgen Cambodian Photographs Collection, ASU]. 2) Climbing the Thnot (sugar palm tree), photographer unknown [Mimi Palgen Memorial Collection, reproduced in Nicholas Coffill, Photography in Cambodia, 2023, p 23].