Prasat Beng Mealea temple. Cambodia.

Film.

Siem Reap, Cambodia.

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Ta Prohm. Cambodia.

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Cambodia.

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Cambodia.

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Bayon Temple. Cambodia.

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Bayon Temple. Cambodia.

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Cambodia.

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Ta Prohm, Cambodia.


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The ancient royal highway to Preah Khan Kompong. Cambodia.

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Cheung Ek, The Killing Fields. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

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S-21, Tuol Sleng. Cambodia.

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The most notorious of the 189 known interrogation centers in Cambodia was S-21, housed in a former school and now called Tuol Sleng for the hill on which it stands. Between 14,000 and 17,000 prisoners were detained there, often in primitive brick cells built in former classrooms. Only 12 prisoners are believed to have survived.

S-21 confined mostly “elite” prisoners from the Khmer Rouge’s own ranks.

Khieu Samphan – Brother Number 4. 2007. Pailin, Cambodia.

Film.

Khieu Samphan was one of the most powerful officials in the Khmer Rouge movement, although Pol Pot remained the General Secretary in the party. Khieu Samphan is the second oldest living former Khmer Rouge leader, alongside Nuon Chea. On August 7, 2014, they were convicted and received life sentences for crimes against humanity during the Cambodian Genocide. He succeeded Pol Pot as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea.

I shot this on film in Samphan's home a few months before he was found by authorities. I was still learning about photography at this time. I decided not to remove the scratches and artifacts on the film after I scanned it in.

•An unissued Khmer Rouge riel printed in 1975.

Attempting to create a classless society, the Khmer Rouge abolished money, capitalism, private property, formal education, religion, and traditional cultural practices. Schools, shops, churches, and government buildings were converted into prisons and crop storage facilities.

•A piece uniform from one of the 8,985 people who were killed at Choeung Ek (the Killing Fields).

Between 1975 and 1978, approximately 17,000 men, women, children and infants (including nine westerners), were detained and tortured at S-21 prison.

The remains of 8,985 people, many of whom were bound and blindfolded, were exhumed in 1980 from mass graves in this one-time orchard; 43 of the 129 communal graves here have been left untouched. Fragment of Human bone and bits of cloth are scattered around the disinterred pits.