Photo Gallery: Angkor Wat

Original Post: http://michaeldesrosiers.blogspot.com/2017/12/christmas-in-cambodia-year-end-post-2017.html

These photos were shot on Ilford Delta 400 with my 1970 Fujica

Cambodia looks good in black and white!

I carried my Fujica camera with me to Cambodia when I visited Angkor Wat with my family around Christmastime.

I was really happy to bring my brother and my Mom to Siem Reap, one of my favorite places in Southeast Asia to visit! While there, we spent a day exploring the Angkor Wat Historical Park. Here, Kyle and Mom look out over the Angkor Wat temple ruins.

Angkor Wat was abandoned by the Khmer empire hundreds of years ago. It was overtaken by the jungle and lost until it was re-introduced to the world by a French archaeologist, explorer, and adventurer named Henri Mouhot. Looking at the photographs of the magnificent old ruins in grainy black and white film hearkens back a bit to the romanticism of exploration and adventure.

My brother brought his film camera too, and I gave him a few rolls of  my film to shoot with. I'm not sure if he's gotten them developed yet or not, but I would like to put a few of his pictures up on my blog at some point to share them as well!

Angkor Wat was built as the central temple of the Khmer Empire in the 12th century. For a time, the capital of the Khmer Empire, at the nearby Angkor Thom, may have been the biggest city in the world. Angkor Wat is a pre-Buddhist Hindu temple complex, and the beautiful bas reliefs and carvings depict this. Here, a prang, or spire on the roof of the temple complex, points towards heaven.

Although Angkor Wat was originally constructed as a Hindu temple, the Khmer Empire converted to Buddhism in the 12th century. Angkor Wat has been consecrated as a Buddhist holy site, and there are plenty of ancient Buddhist statues throughout the complex as well.

This photo turned out quite sharp, and with excellent contrast. This is a bas relief in one of the walls at Angkor Wat. It's remarkably well-preserved for its age.

Here, tourists walk across the grounds inside Angkor Wat's central courtyard.

This is the entrance to one of the smaller temples in the historical park. It was a bright and sunny morning, and the light for photography was excellent. I'm so happy with how this roll of film turned out! Nearly all of the photos were sharp and showed good depth.

 

I still have several rolls that I need to get developed and publish into Photo Gallery posts. Now that classes are over, I'll have a lot more time to work on my blog! I want to spent the next few weeks publishing my photography as I continue on my journey to learn how to be a good black and white film travel photographer.