via CAAI
December 4, 2010
A 28-year-old photojournalist who interned at the Evansville Courier & Press in 2008 has been jailed in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on a charge of producing pornographic content after taking photographs of a Cambodian couple as part of an Asian photography workshop.
Go Takayama, a Japanese citizen who graduated from Ohio University, was arrested Nov. 23. After photographing a married couple inside their home that evening, Takayama was stopped on the street by undercover police, Angkor Photo Workshop organizer Jessica Lim said.
Officers confiscated Takayama's camera along with 78 photographs from its memory card. The photographs have been admitted as evidence. Takayama has been jailed since that night.
"The 78 photographs depict a couple hugging and holding each other," Lim said. "Although there was never any nudity, the man had his shirt off and halfway through the shoot the woman took her blouse off as well. The man had on shorts and the woman had on trousers throughout the entire shoot and there was no explicit sexual activity."
"We are very concerned that press articles and reports released to date about Takayama's arrest are giving grossly inaccurate information, which contradict the actual events as well as the notes and reports that were made by the police," Lim said. "We would like to clarify all the information regarding Takayama and the circumstances of his arrest."
Lim said workshop officials believe Takayama has been wrongfully accused and are urging Cambodian police and the court to drop all charges. A hearing date has been scheduled for Tuesday in Siem Reap. Lim visited Takayama in prison on Thursday, and the photographer is being represented by a local Cambodian attorney.
The Angkor Photo Workshop is an annual free seminar organized for Asian photographers, Lim said. During the workshop, each participant has to develop a project and shoot a photographic essay. Takayama was one of 31 participants from 14 Asian countries in this year's Angkor event.
For his project, Takayama researched a Cambodian folk tale known as the "Seven Color Princess," Lim said. To illustrate the various aspects of the lore, a narrative about a princess and a crocodile, Takayama had already photographed several other people in various situations, including subjects at a crocodile farm, a floating market, Tonle Sap lake, a boxing match in a Pagoda, and a traditional Khmer wedding. Lim said Takayama had shot more than 1,400 photographs on his essay's theme, and some of the photographs are pictures of places that do not have people in them.
One component of the folk tale is the idea of "strong, possessive love," Lim said. In the tale, when the crocodile finds out the princess is planning to leave him to marry another, the crocodile eats the princess so that she will remain with him forever. To illustrate this part of the story, Lim said, Takayama decided to show strong, possessive love demonstrated between two people. To do so, he was photographing a married couple, with their permission, who knew the context of the story he was trying to illustrate for the workshop.
"No explicit sexual activity took place during the shoot," Lim told News Photographer Magazine. She said the couple were photographed hugging and kissing "in a romantic light."
When Takayama was stopped by police, Lim said, he and the couple were asked to accompany officers to a police station. There the photographer was charged with producing pornography for distribution.
Lim said that contrary to reports published in a Cambodian newspaper, there is absolutely no nudity in any of the photographs, no sexual activity and that all 78 photographs show the same couple. She also says his photographs were produced only for the workshop project, and Takayama had no intention of distributing or publishing the content.
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