Construction of National Stadium

This is one of a series of photographs in which Micheline Dullin (1927-2020) recorded Phnom Penh’s extraordinary transformation during the independence period. Dullin is the author of some of the most striking visual documentation of Cambodia’s independence-era nation-building years. Born in France in 1927, she lived in Phnom Penh between 1958 and 1964, and was appointed by Norodom Sihanouk as the palace’s official photographer (together with her partner, Robert Favart). Given the central importance of image to Sihanouk’s work as Prince, Head of State, filmmaker, and editor, this role was very significant in articulating the new nation’s ambitions and transformations. As a result, Dullin was afforded privileged access to massive construction sites, invited to photographically record the building of the National Sports Complex and National Theatre, both designed by Vann Molyvann and sited on massive plots of reclaimed land. She also took numerous aerial photographs of Phnom Penh during its period of rapid expansion, from helicopters chartered for her by the Prince and Head of State. Dullin’s period of residence in Cambodia coincided with the most active years of state-sponsored architectural construction and urban expansion in the country. Architects Vann Molyvann and Lu Ban Hap returned from their studies in 1956 and 1960, respectively, and together they realised Sihanouk’s ambitions which were fuelled by his success in winning independence in 1953, and his attendance at the Bandung Conference in 1955. Dullin’s photographs demonstrate a strong awareness of and interest in modernist and pictorial photography, especially in her compositional attention to repeated geometric forms and exaggerated architectural angles achieved through unusual vantage points. In general, the human workers doing the construction are of secondary importance in these works: Dullin’s focus is squarely on the built forms of Molyvann’s architecture, and the formal concerns of her own compositions.