Angkor Photo Festival: Dates, Tickets & Venue (Siem Reap)

Siem Reap with photographs on the walls

In late November, Siem Reap turns into a gallery. The Angkor Photo Festival hangs work by international and Cambodian photographers across town, some of it indoors and some outside. All of the exhibitions are free, so there’s no ticket desk and no turnstile. You walk in the way you’d walk into a shop.

The festival started in 2005 and is widely considered the longest-running photography festival in Southeast Asia. The 2026 edition is dated late November. Multi-day workshops and portfolio reviews run alongside the exhibitions, so photographers come here to work as much as to look.

What the exhibitions are like

The outdoor shows are prints mounted in the open air. They sit in courtyards, along walls and in public spaces you might pass on your way to dinner. The indoor shows are in galleries and cultural venues, where you get shade, fans and a closer look at the prints.

The real draw is the line-up mix. Photographers from abroad hang next to Cambodian photographers, so pictures taken in the region sit beside pictures by people who grew up in it. The programme has always leaned towards documentary and storytelling work. Expect long series and captions that are worth reading, rather than single postcard-style shots.

Every year the festival publishes its own map of venues. The festival’s website and social channels carry the programme, artist list and locations for each edition.

Workshops and portfolio reviews

The second half of the festival happens in smaller rooms. The workshops last several days and have traditionally been aimed at emerging photographers from across Asia. Participants get in by application, not by walk-up registration. Their finished work usually goes on show before the festival ends.

In the portfolio reviews, photographers sit down with experienced editors and photographers for feedback on their work. That makes the festival a real career event for people trying to get into documentary photography. If you’re just there to look, the main thing you’ll notice is that more of the crowd carries cameras than usual.

Getting between venues

Siem Reap’s centre is small and flat. Most visitors get between venues on foot or by tuk-tuk. The old core runs from Psar Chaa (the Old Market) and Pub Street out to the paths along the Siem Reap River. Many cultural spaces sit within walking distance of that stretch.

• Tuk-tuks: easy to find on the street. You agree the fare before you get in.
• Ride-hailing apps: PassApp and Grab both work in town, and the fare is shown upfront.
• Bicycles: many guesthouses rent them, which helps when venues are spread out.
• From the airport: Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI) is roughly an hour’s drive from the town centre.

How to behave at the exhibitions

The shows are informal, but a few habits make them go more smoothly. Some exhibitions hang in cafés, bars and hotels. Visitors there usually buy a drink as a courtesy, even though looking at the prints costs nothing.

• Money: US dollars and Cambodian riel are both used every day. Small change often comes back in riel.
• Photographing the prints: visitors usually take a wide shot of the room but don’t copy whole series frame by frame. Credit the photographer if you share anything.
• Street photography: there are lots of cameras around during festival week. Ask before you photograph people up close, especially monks and children.
• Clothing: covered shoulders and knees are expected at Angkor’s temples, and that suits a day that moves from exhibitions to ruins.
• Talking to photographers: artists often come to their own shows. They’re usually happy to answer questions about a series.

Exhibitions after a day at the temples

Late November is early in the dry season. The heavy rains have usually stopped, and mornings and evenings are among the coolest of the year. Many festival visitors spend the morning at the temples and go round the exhibitions later in the day, when the light outside goes soft.

Angkor Wat is about 6km north of the town centre. Entry to the Angkor Archaeological Park needs an Angkor Pass, which is sold at the official ticket centre on the road out of town, where prices are posted. Sunrise at Angkor Wat, the faces of the Bayon and the tree-grown walls of Ta Prohm make a full first day. That still leaves evenings free for the festival.

Most visitors stay three or four nights. That gives you two days for the temples and enough unhurried time to see the exhibitions across town.