Visions of Cambodian Water Festival by...John Vink
by John Vink
The festive fervor of Bon Om Tuk, the boat-race festival marking the end of rainy season on Phnom Penh's Four Rivers, depicted from 1991 to 2024.
Almost every year since his arrival in Cambodia — the boat races were cancelled in Phnom Penh in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 for various reasons, then again in 2020 and 2021 due to the global pandemic -, photoreporter John Vink has documented in black-and-white the high holy days of បុណ្យអុំទូក Bön Om Tuk, the Padding Boat festival.
While religious ceremonies are taking place at the Royal Palace, and the pavilion hosting VIP guests during these three days of celebrations has expanded in the recent years, the photographer was more focused on the popular side of the festival: crews carrying their dugouts to the water or taking a break in-between two races, throngs of revelers joyfully sitting on the banks of Tonle Sap, gathering in downtown Phnom Penh from the outskirts of the city and from the provinces, picnics and music and card-playing, all in typical Cambodian way: spontaneous, good-natured and playful.
On these 41 photographs — out of hundreds collected through almost three decades -, we can “read” the exertion of men and women paddlers, the timeless significance of a collective celebration of water, land and moon, a whole people’s gratefulness for the monsoon rains and the new harvest. We can see the city changing in the background, yet the fervor remains the same. And when the races are over, during the following weeks, boat crews will be cheered in their neighborhoods, winners or not. The new moon of Khattik is waning, a new cycle of life has begun.
Note: this selection covers the years 1991, 1999, 2010, 2014 and 2024.
Tags: water festival, rivers, boat races, Cambodian cities, festivals, Khmer ceremonies
About the Photographer
John Vink
John Vink (b. 3 Feb 1948, Ixelles, Belgium) is an independent photoreporter, previously affiliated with photo agencies VU (1986−1993), Magnum (1997−2017) and MAPS (2017−2022), who lived during 16 years in Cambodia (2000−2016), with a first visit to the Kingdom in 1989. Based in Belgium since 2016, he regularly shuttles from Brussels to Phnom Penh.
After studying photography at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels La Cambre (ENSAV, Brussels), John Vink received the W. Eugene Smith Grant for his series ‘Eaux du Sahel’ in 1986, the same year he joined VU Agency. From 1987 to 1993, he worked on a photo project regarding refugees worldwide, resulting in his book Réfugiés (1994). He was also the editor of the review Thèmes, devoted to photojournalism.
His encounter with Cambodia was not planned and yet essential: “I came to Cambodia in 1989 for the first time, a bit by chance, having replaced a colleague on an assignment for the French daily Libération. I came again in 1991, after the Paris Peace Accords and before the UN moved in. Then once more in 1999 to make a book Avoir 20 Ans à Phnom Penh’ (Being 20 in Phnom Penh, 2000). In 2000 I stayed, finally being somewhere else without the hassle of having to travel continuously. The big difference with previous stories I did is the availablity it gave me. It is really ‘backyard photography’ now.” [interview with Eric Kim while he was still a member of Magnum Agency.]
On Cambodia, the book Poids Mouche [about Khmer boxing, published in collaboration with Christophe Macquet in 2006, way before the spectacular comeback of Cambodian martial arts of the 2020s] was followed by a series of Apple photo ebooks, in particular Quest for Land, a visual summary of land-related conflicts he had covered for 11 years. Meanwhile, he wrapped up a long-haul photographic essay on ‘hill people’ from Laos to Guatemala with the publication of Peuples d’en haut (2004).
In the demanding tradition of photojournalism, John Vink likes to remark that one doesn’t ‘watch’ photographs, but ‘read’ them, adding: “I am in the field of documenting facts and situations. And I work with certain ethics which are supposed to build a truthful relationship between the reader and me, and which give the reader some guarantee that he can trust what I say or show.”
Publications
- [photo illustration, along with Claudine Doury, Hugues de Wurstemberg, Patrick Zachmann] Assia Djebar, Chronique d’un été algérien, Ici et Là-bas, Paris, Editions Plume, 1993, ISBN13: 9782908034820.
- [with Gabriele Basilico, Carlos Canovas] Ría De Hierro / burdinezko itsas-adarra / Iron River, Bilbao, Ediciones Laga, 1993, ISBN13 9788488541062.
- Réfugiés: Photographies de John Vink, 1987 – 1994, Paris, Photo notes, Centre national de la photographie with Médecins sans frontières, 1994, ISBN13 :978 – 2867540899
- [ed.] Themes 1 — People’s Struggle, Brussels, Faut Voir, 1994.
- [ed.] Themes 2 — Europe Recovered?, Brussels, Faut Voir, 1994.
- [ed.] Themes 3 — Childhood Thieves, Brussels, Faut Voir, 1995.
- [ed.] Themes 4 — Amerindians, Brussels, Faut Voir, 1995.
- [ed.] Themes 5 — Religious Rites, Brussels, Faut Voir, 1995.
- J’ai deux amours: Portraits d’exil [with Brigitte Martinez], Paris, Le Cherche-Midi, 1998, ISBN13: 9782862746265.
- Avoir 20 ans à Phnom Penh, Alternatives, 2000, 96 p, ISBN13 :978 – 2862272627[texts by Frédéric Amat and Kong Sothanrith, foreword by Rithy Panh].
- De grot; Kroniek van een filmproductie; Een fotodocumentaire door Magnum-fotografen, Amsterdam, Get Reel, 2001 [with Carl de Keyzer & Alex Majolo].
- Peuples d’en haut : Laos, Guatemala, Géorgie : la montagne est leur royaume, [with Christian Culas, Jesus Garcia-Ruis, Bernard Outtier], Paris, Autrement, 2004, 207 p, ISBN13 :978 – 2746705364
- Poids mouche, [text by Christophe Macquet], Les Editions du Mékong, 2006, 81 p, ISBN13 9789995075002.
- 30 Years for a Trial, [text by Robert Carmichael], Apple Books, 2012.
- Quest for Land, [10-year investigation on land issues in Cambodia], texts by Robert Carmichael, Apple iPad, 2012.
- Royal Silence, [texts by Pierre Gillette and Abby Seiff], Apple Books, 2013.
- Sidelines, Veurne (Belgium), Hannibal, April 2025.
About John Vink
- Maestros de la Fotografía. Refugiados y Minorías: Robert Capa, John Vink, Larry Towell, Dorothea Lange, todocollecion, 2009, ISBN13 9788498991185.
- Eric Kim’s interview with John Vink, Eric Kim website.
- Wayne Yang’s interview with John Vink, 2 parts, 2007.
Links
Photo: Autoportrait