A Generation Lost.

From 1975 to 1979, millions of individuals deemed spies, enemies of the state, and subversive to the communist government of Pol Pot were ruthlessly tortured, interrogated, and sent to labor camps or executed all over Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge government was exacting revenge.

Close to 20,000 Cambodians were sent to Tuol Sleng, a prison camp converted from a high school in Phnom Penh, the capital. Of the people sent here, only seven made it out alive. “Confessions” were forced out of the prisoners through beatings, waterboarding, rape, and body mutilation. Prisoners were fed next to nothing, their legs chained to iron bars for most of the day. And in the end, if they survived Toul Sleng, they were shipped off in trucks to Choeung Ek – the killing field.

Approximately 15 kilometers outside of the city, victims were unloaded at night and hacked away at with axes, back hoes, machetes – whatever the executioners could find. Children were held by their legs and swung into a tree, their skulls smashing on the tree bark. In the eyes of the Khmer Rouge, these “traitors” weren’t worth the price of a bullet. They were buried on the spot in mass graves, nameless individuals, forgotten by the world.

Only seven people are known to have survived Tuol Sleng.

There was something incredibly eerie about wandering the hallways and the fields of these two sites. Despite the sweltering heat, the mood was heavy, an extra weight on my shoulders. At Choeung Ek, bits of bone and clothing peaked through the surface, brought up by the rain. There were bodies still buried there, a mausoleum filled to the top with skulls. You could feel the pain of the thousands of Cambodians who were processed here. And yet, right outside the barbed wire walls of Tuol Sleng are a string of restaurants. I’ve heard from some Cambodians that many of the younger generation don’t know, or much less care about the horrible and painful history their parents and grandparents had to endure. These victims are being forgotten, drifting away once again. Is there anything that can be done?

You think about a lot of things when you see those skulls. You think about what kind of lives those people could have lived. I thought about what I could do to be a better person.

You think about everything in your life. And if it has all been worth it. But you gotta try.

Below are images from Tuol Sleng and Cheoung Ek.

More after the jump.

A Long Time Coming

It was the last day of the school year, a chilly day in late December. A few teachers were retiring, some were transferring to other schools. And as the minutes ran down before we were all to leave and go our separate ways, I decided that I wanted to take portraits of the teachers who would be leaving Bonglim Middle School. And it started with the first image below.

I went home, looked at the photographs, and immediately wanted to take portraits of everyone I knew in Korea. An ambitious project, but one that I felt I had to do, for a myriad of reasons that one day I’ll be able to talk about. Or not.

I’ve always loved black and white portraiture, but had never done it myself. Just jumped right into it. I personally think using this process uncovers those little gems about the subject, the bits people usually miss. And even more about the relationship between subject and photographer.

It took me a long time to finally make these public. Most of the people photographed haven’t seen their portrait. It was surprisingly difficult putting these together, looking straight into peoples’ souls constantly for weeks.

There are a lot more portraits to work on, a lot more people to take photographs of. This is an ongoing project, and I’ll periodically post some updates here.

For now, here are fifteen people. Please give me some feedback, comments, suggestions, observations. I’d love to hear what you think. Especially from the people photographed.

Thank you.

Yang-hoo

Mi-sook

Man-kyoo

More after the jump.