Visions of Angkor and Cambodia by...Mimi Palgen-Maisonneuve

From 1946 to 1962, Mimi Palgen-Maisonneuve captured precious landscapes and daily life moments of Cambodia. Through her lens, the flooded districts of Phnom Penh in the 1950s, night-time Khmer sacred dance performances, women and men of faraway villages, and the majestic temples of the Angkorean area, are pictured with a remarkable sense of detail, and a profound empathy.

The MimiJac Palgen Memorial Collection at Arizona State University (ASU, USA) includes original photographs, photographic negatives, slides, support literature, 8 regional decorative objects and assorted postcards, cards and flyers of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. The photograph-negative collection consists of over 1,000 black and white, self-developed Rolleiflex negatives and photographs of urban and rural Cambodia, and around 500 black and white negatives taken in the Angkor area.

Note 1: Since August 2024, the MimiJac Palgen Cambodian Photographs at Arizona University is accessible online via the platform ASU/PRISM. As to July 2025, 2,483 images have been uploaded. 

Note 2: an online resource created by the Northern Illinois University Libraries. The Bophana Center in Phnom Penh also keeps several prints from Mimi Palgen’s photographic work. The catalogue of this collection can be viewed here.

About the photograph selected here

1. The first photo, an aerial shot of Angkor Wat, looks more like a photograph by Raymond Cauchetier than Mimi Palgen.
2. The shot of the Leper King Terrace is particularly important as it shows the poor state of the terrace at the time, way before the major restoration work completed by EFEO and APSARA Authority in 2000.
3. The Royal Ploughing Ceremony ព្រះរាជពិធីបុណ្យច្រត់ព្រះនង្គ័ល (Preah Reach Pithi Chrot Preah Neangkol), an ancient agricultural festival celebrated in Cambodia to mark the beginning of the rice-growing season, symbolizes prosperity and harmony between the monarchy, the people, and the land, as the King himself plows the sacred furrow in a designated field at the start of the rainy season, in May, at a date chosen by the baku and royal astrologers. Prince Norodom Sihanouk liked to summon photographers to the joyous ceremony, and it had been captured by Raymond Cauchetier, Micheline Dullin and Mimi Palgen.
4. Photographs labelled here Mimi Palgen/​CAMBX are often lacking of detailed captions. We are currently trying to find some information about possible context and location in Cambodia.

Mimi Palgen near the Chanchaya Pavilion (Royal Palace) with her Rolleiflex, Phnom Penh, circa 1952.