Montgomery Photographer Brings You the World in Black and White

It’s been said that photographers are our windows onto the world. Samantha Oulavong of Montgomery takes that adage seriously.

For years, the 36-year-old Oulavong has been taking her camera to remote corners of the globe, and bringing back dazzling pictures. For the next two months, you’ll be able to see some of those pictures, taken during a pair of recent trips to Cambodia, hanging on the walls of Chef Amaury’s restaurant in downtown Aurora.

But the photos are only part of the story. When Oulavong, an art teacher at Washington Middle School in Aurora, plans her voyages to other countries, she’s not just sightseeing. She’s making the world a better place.

“I love to travel,” Oulavong said. “But I want to have a purpose when I travel.”

To that end, Oulavong started an organization called Lens of Vision and Expression, and through it, she volunteers her services to not-for-profit groups who work in countries in Asia and Central America, among other places. She joins their teams, and works alongside them. She teaches photography to underprivileged children in the countries she visits, and documents their lives for others to see.

Oulavong owns her own photography business, and uses the money she makes to fund her trips. In the summers of 2008 and 2009, she spent months in Cambodia, working with children whose parents are suffering from HIV and AIDS.

For Oulavong, it was like going home. She was born in neighboring Laos, and came to the United States with her parents when she was six years old.

“It’s like touching part of my roots,” she said. “Being away from home for so long, you get to see just how similar you are to neighboring countries.”

She also visited some of Cambodia’s most famous landmarks, including Angkor Wat, a massive temple built in the 12th Century. It contains thousands of bas-relief sculptures, depicting religious scenes and moments of life in the Angkor Wat courtyard.

“It was really overwhelming,” Oulavong said. “I’d only seen photos of it. I was really moved by the history of it.”

Angkor Wat and the Bayon Temple, famous for the faces of kings carved into its walls, provided much of the material for Oulavong’s exhibit in Aurora. But it’s the people she met in Cambodia that will stay with her.

“It’s the heart and spirit of the people,” she said. “Knowing their struggles, their poverty, but spirit-wise, they have this resiliency that is so inspirational.”

Amaury Rosado, owner of Chef Amaury’s, calls Oulavong “one of the most talented artists I’ve ever been around.” He said he is excited to display her work, and hopefully bring it a wider audience.

“She captures the human spirit in a way people usually don’t capture when they take pictures,” Rosado said.

Oulavong hopes her work can open eyes and minds, and get people to “step outside their comfort zones, and see what other parts of the world are like.” And she’s not done traveling, either—later this year, she will trek to Uganda, joining up with a local church for a mission trip.

And of course, she will have her camera with her.

Samantha Oulavong’s photos of Cambodia will be on display at Chef Amaury’s, 33 W. New York Street in Aurora, starting with a 4:30 p.m. reception on Feb. 26 and running through April 30. Her work can be found online at www.samanthaphotography.com. Her organization can be found at www.lensofvisionexpresssion.org.