ook at all the tour buses! says Cambodia-

based photographer John McDermott

as he drives the crowded entrance

road to Angkor, a vast, 154-square-mile

complex of ancient temples in the Cambo-

dian jungle. Staring at the long, slowly mov-

ing caravan of buses, cars, tuk tuks (motorized

rickshaws), and bicycles, all loaded down

with tourists, McDermott complains, This

place is being overrun. Its a crime.

McDermott should know. The former

Arkansas-based photographer first visited

Angkor in 1995, when tourists were sparse.

Since then, hes become renowned for the series

of elegant, iconic images he photo graphed of

what were then relatively uncrowded and

largely unspoiled Angkor temples. I wanted

to preserve the history of Angkor, but I also

wanted my pictures to make the point that

you have to take care of an attraction as

unique and fragile as this, he explains.

His series of Angkor photographs, many

of which were taken with infrared film, have

won him worldwide acclaim. The New York

Times dubbed McDermott the Ansel Adams

of Angkor, describing his photographs as

dreamlike as though they were taken in

an ancient forgotten world. His images of

the vast complex are on permanent display

in the National Museum in Phnom Penh,

Cambodia, and are featured in other museums

and private collections. Hes had numerous

one-man shows of his Asian photography

around the world and runs three of his own

galleries in Cambodia.

While McDermott has received interna-

tional recognition for his Angkor fine-art pho-

tographs, hes also a much sought-after com-

All images John McDermott

Old made newJohn McDermotts love affair with Angkor gives him a fresh perspective

BY ROBERT KIENER

F I N E A R T

L

mercial and editorial shooter. His work has

appeared in Time, Newsweek, The New York

Times, the International Herald Tribune, and

elsewhere. Today the 59-year-old, soft-spoken

photographer lives with his wife, Narisara

Murray, and their two small children in Siem

Reap, a resort town in northwestern Cambo-

dia and the gateway to the Angkor region.

Over a delicious lunch of rice, freshly-

caught fish, steamed vegetables, and spicy

soup in his airy traditional Khmer home and

studio, McDermott explains how he made

the transition from photographer for Little

Rock-based Arkansas Times to living and

working in one of Asias most exotic locales.

LIGHTING THE SPARKIn 1993, a chance assignment for a Bangkok,

Thailand-based magazine led to a job offer

as a staff photographer that was too inter-

esting to turn down, he says. McDermott

moved to Thailand and for several years visited

much of Southeast Asia, shooting editorial

features for Manager Magazine. A self-

described eclipse head, he first visited and

began photographing Angkor in 1995 for a

total solar eclipse. He admits he was bowled

over by the beauty and grandeur of the place.

After the magazine job ended in 1998,

McDermott returned to the United States but

came back in 2000 when the luxury Siem

Reap hotel, Raffles Grand Hotel dAngkor,

offered him a small show of his Angkor pho-

tographs. The pictures quickly sold out. It

was McDermotts aha moment. I suddenly

realized that although tourism was still in its

infancy here, the spark had been lit. The

world would soon discover Angkor, and I

wanted to help preserve it on film.

Funding himself and earning some income

from gallery shows, McDermott began to

spend more and more time in Cambodia

and got to work systematically photograph-

ing the vast Angkor complex. It felt a bit

like a race against time, he remembers. I

wanted to put together a comprehensive

portrait of Angkor before tourism forever

changed it. I also wanted my pictures to look

timeless; I didnt want any tourists or any-

one wearing a T-Shirt or a baseball cap in

them. Luckily, McDermotts timing was

perfect. Cambodia had only recently emerged

from years of war and the horrors of Pol Pot,

so he frequently had much of the sprawling

Angkor complex virtually to himself.

Experimenting with black-and-white

infrared film during the 1995 solar eclipse

had convinced McDermott to use the film

for his Angkor photographs. I loved the way

infrared film, because it has a much broader

range of sensitivity to light than standard

films and records light waves that fall below

the spectrum of the human eye, produces

images that are at once familiar and dream-

like, he explains. I like the way the film

gives images a dreamy impressionistic qual-

ity. (The film was discontinued by Kodak in

2007, but McDermott confesses he has sev-

eral hundred rolls in refrigerated storage.)

As more and more tourists were discov-

ering Angkor, McDermott kept shooting and

in 2004 was offered the chance to open his

own gallery in Siem Reap that would exclu-

sively feature his work. Narisara and I decided

to move here full time, he explains. Look-

ing back, we had no idea how much time it

would take to manage and run a gallery!

April 2014 Professional Photographer 91

LEARNING ON THE JOB

Over a cold bottle of locally brewed Angkor

beer, the photographer admits that he and

his wife knew next to nothing about run-

ning a gallery. I know a lot of photographers

think having their own gallery is a dream

come true, but we both worked almost non-

stop for several years just to learn about

marketing, selling, exhibiting, and staffing

the gallery. As a result, for my first three years

in Siem Reap, I didnt touch my cameras.

McDermott opened a second gallery in

2007 and later added a third in the swanky

Raffles Grand Hotel dAngkor. He sells a

range of relatively inexpensive machine prints

as well as large-format custom prints of his

Angkor photographs. The custom editioned

prints that he makes himself begin at $475

for a 12x18-inch open-edition print and

range up to $10,000 for a 40x60-inch print

from an edition of 20. Most of his sales

occur during the busy tourist season from

November through March.

McDermott built a complete wet dark-

room where he makes silver gelatin prints in the

loft of his home, and he uses a wide-format

Epson Stylus Pro 9880 for larger archival

digital prints. I like both methods, he explains.

Its fun to get lost in the wet darkroom sip-

ping on a glass of wine as I enlarge and print.

But its expensive to have the chemicals and

paper shipped to Cambodia from the USA.

He explains that almost all his customers

prefer the custom prints to be mailed. Tourists

dont want to carry a large print home, he

says. Thanks to his hard-earned experience

and an able staff, he can now devote the

bulk of his time to photography. His self-

published, 256-page book of more than 100

of his Angkor photographs, Elegy: Reflec-

tions on Angkor, sold out its first printing

of 3,000, and he plans to reissue it soon.

ALWAYS HUSTLINGIn addition to his fine-art photography, he

shoots weddings; does commercial work for

local hotels, travel companies, and others;

makes portraits; and enjoys the occasional

editorial assignment. Like many photogra-

phers, I have to keep hustling, admits

McDermott.

He also conducts popular one-day and

multi-day photography workshops in Angkor

and as far afield as Myanmar (formerly

Burma). A favorite destination is Bagan in

central Myanmar, a deeply spiritual place

home to more than 2,200 Buddhist temples

and pagodas. Its a lot like Angkor was before

the tourists started flooding in here, says

McDermott. I want to capture as much of it

as I can before it changes too drastically.

Visiting photographers often hire

McDermott for both his keen photographic

expertise as well as his knowledge of Angkor.

As more and more planeloads of tourists fly

into Siem Reap, its getting harder and

harder to photograph the ancient temples

without being jostled or having a visitor

walk through your shot, he explains. More

than two million visitors flood into Siem

Reap and Angkor each year. Some temples,

such as the popular Angkor Wat and

92 www.ppmag.com

xx www.ppmag.com April 2014 Professional Photographer xx

Angkor Thom, are jam-packed with tourists

from sunrise to sunset.

But McDermott knows how to get off the

beaten path. He likes photographing the

less-visited Angkor temples that are an hour

or more away from the main complex. Theres

less of a crush at these, so you can experience

the soul of this amazing place, he explains.

He also knows how to find new angles at

the more popular temples. Recently he and

some visitors drove into Angkor, just 5 or 6

miles from his home, and he eventually

parked his battered Honda CR-V near the

less-visited eastern gate of the majestic 12th-

century temple, Preah Khan. Most of the

tour buses and hired guides drop people off

at the other gates, McDermott says.

Then, instead of walking though the center

of the temple, as virtually all other visitors

do, he veered off onto a jungle path that

skirts the temples outer wall. Within minutes,

he and his visitors had gone back in time;

the sounds of tourists and hawkers had been

replaced by the occasional cry of a monkey

in this ancient jungle. After stepping over a

section of the outer wall that had fallen

down, the group spotted the temple ruins

shimmering in the late afternoon light. It

was at once magical, miraculous, and quiet.

As McDermott raised his Nikon to take

yet another photograph of the ancient ruins

that have become his lifes work, he said, I

never get tired of this place. n

See more of John McDermotts work at asi-aphotos.net.

Robert Kiener is a writer based in Vermont.