Artist talk with Kim Hak

   An afternoon of hearing a photographer explain why he photographs at all. Cambodian photographer Kim Hak walks through his whole practice, from early documentary series to two long-term bodies of work he is still adding to, in one of Hanoi's steadiest photography spaces.

   The deepest part of the talk goes to two series. «My Beloved» was made over eleven years; «Alive» began in 2014 and remains open. Both draw on personal and collective memories of the Khmer Rouge regime and follow post-conflict narratives: loss, the endurance of survivors, and the ways memories of the past keep shaping the present in Cambodia and across its diaspora.

   Kim Hak was born in 1981 in Battambang, in north-western Cambodia, two years after the regime fell. He grew up on his parents' accounts of that time and turned to photography as a way to remember, reclaim and reinterpret his country's social history before, during and after those years. Beyond memory, his work reaches into other themes within Cambodia's cultural fabric and its changing social landscape.

   Worth knowing:

• — both long-term projects told in one sitting, with the images alongside
• — each series exists as a photobook, and a limited number of copies are on sale at the talk
• — Kim Hak's work has shown widely in Cambodia and at major international festivals

   The talk is for documentary photographers, photography students and anyone who wants a region's memory explained by someone from inside it. If you are stuck partway into a long-term project of your own, the most useful thread here is how he has held one subject for over a decade.

   The talk is in English with Vietnamese translation.

   Entrance is free, so simply come and find yourself a seat.