Biography

Roun Ry is a freelance documentary photographer based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, known for his long-term visual storytelling on environmental and social issues across the country. He discovered his passion for photography in 2010 through the Anjali Photo Workshops, organized by the Angkor Photo Festival & Workshops. In 2016, he further developed his craft by joining an intensive masterclass with internationally acclaimed photographers Antoine d’Agata and Sohrab Hura during the Angkor Photo Festival. Since then, Roun has continued to collaborate with the Festival, mentoring and supporting emerging Cambodian photographers.

As a Cambodian documentary photographer, Roun focuses on communities living around the Tonle Sap Lake, the Mekong River, and the mangrove forests in Cambodia’s coastal areas—regions undergoing rapid environmental and social transformation. His major personal projects, including Our Village, Resistance: To Live, and The Last Mangrove, examine how development, climate change, and displacement reshape people’s identities, livelihoods, and relationship to the land. Through these projects, he documents the everyday lives of fishing families on the Tonle Sap, the struggles of communities displaced by hydropower construction along the Mekong River, and the fragile ecosystems of Cambodia’s coastal mangrove forests. His photography is grounded in empathy and long-term engagement, weaving together human stories with the complex realities of environmental change.

Roun’s work has been widely published, appearing in The Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera, China Dialogue, Asia Society, and Reuters. He has collaborated with numerous international organizations, including UNICEF UK, WHO, UN Women, Agence Française de Développement, CARE Cambodia, Diakonia, RECOFTC Cambodia, We World Onlus, Better Factories Cambodia, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), and the Solidarity Center.

His photography has been exhibited in Cambodia, France, China, South Korea, and Vietnam, contributing to broader conversations around environment, community, and social change. Roun Ry is also a recipient of the Creative Generation Award, recognizing his growing impact on contemporary Cambodian photography.

Recognition

  • 2020 — Creative Generation Award, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Solo Exhibition

  • 2019 — Our Village, Mirage Contemporary Art Space, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Group Exhibitions

  • 2025 — The Last Mangrove, Visualizing Climate Change — Saigon Riverside Park, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

  • 2024 — The Last Mangrove, Angkor Photo Festival, Siem Reap, Cambodia

  • 2022 — Our Village, Les Focales-Bretagne Sud, France

  • 2022 — Our Village, Incheon Marine Photography Festival, South Korea

  • 2022 — Resistance: To Live, World Unknown, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

  • 2021 — Our Village, A Great River, Xishuangbanna Foto Festival, Jinghong City, China

  • 2020 — Fishermen, Les Focales du Pays d’Auge Festival, Normandy, France