Cambodia’s Disappearing Art of Business Signs

Every year since 1999—except during the COVID-19 pandemic—Arjay Stevens has spent six months or so in Cambodia, taking photos as he crisscrossed the country.

When asked what he photographed, he would respond “everything,” he said. Having grown up in post-World War II time in West Germany in the 1950s, Stevens knew how a country may get transformed when peace returns and economic development restarts.

Still, “everything” has often meant photographing the arts in the country, from the sculpted scenes on the walls of the monuments at Angkor, to Khmer classical dancers and Lakhaon Kaol masked dancers.

This has also included everyday art such as signs that people had commissioned from artists to advertise their shops or stores or restaurants.

Stevens’ photos of these signs are being exhibited at the Aroma Gallery in Phnom Penh.

Entitled “Look Up Billboards, Cambodia’s Vanished Art,” the exhibition features photos of signs ranging from one announcing a free-style boxing match between Cambodian and Thai boxers, a sign for a hairdresser, to a sign advertising a music band and one from the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) explaining to people what to do if they find a landmine or UXO in the countryside.

In years past, Stevens said, “you would see those images everywhere, even in remote parts of the country…Whenever I saw one, I would jump out of the car or the bus…in the village or town to photograph it. That’s why I have this huge variety of pictures.”