By Tanith L. Balaban
Arizona Daily Wildcat
January 22, 1998

From the 'Killing Fields'

Photo Courtesy of Photo Archive Group Arizona Daily Wildcat One of about 100 photographs on displayat the Center for Creative Photography's exhibit, "Facing Death: Portraits From Cambodia's Killing Fields." The pictures, damaged from dirt and mildew, were taken of prisoners during the communist regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

Walking into the Center for Creative Photography's gallery is a surreal experience. The tranquil images of Ansel Adams currently take up half of the gallery, while the other half shows humanity at its worst.

About 100 gelatin silver prints comprise the exhibit "Facing Death: Portraits From Cambodia's Killing Fields."

It's surprising that the topic of Cambodia's "killing fields" has received so much attention - in book, photograph and movie form, when a century or so ago, similar attempts at wartime documentation failed. During the Civil War, Matthew Brady took pictures of dead bodies littering the battlefields so that America would not forget one of its greatest catastrophes. After the Civil War was over, though, no one wanted to relive the carnage, and the negatives were largely forgotten.

In today's age, the public has seen pictures from the Holocaust, the Vietnam War and the AIDS crisis. The pictures from Cambodia aren't as gruesome; many episodes of shock television are far more graphic than any of the photographs hanging in the CCP. They shouldn't be so shocking. But they are.

These are the photographs of the men, women and children who were accused enemies of the state during the regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia from 1975-1979. In an effort to create an agrarian society, two million Cambodians, or one in seven people, were executed. Before being taken to Choeung Ek Killing Field and beaten to death, meticulous care was taken to document every person. Of the some 20,000 people who entered the concentration camp, each shared a common experience - they had their pictures taken by a Canon, held by a 16-year-old named Nhem Ein. Only seven of the prisoners survived.

The faces that look out from these photographs are disoriented and confused, due to the fact that they'd just had their blindfolds taken off, didn't know where they were or what was going to happen to them.

One picture depicts a woman who is probably in her 30s, with a despondent look on her face. Heightening the obvious sadness of her situation is the infant in her arms. In another picture a man in his early 20s has obviously been beaten. His face is swollen and it looks like his jaw has been broken twice, once on either side. There are cuts and abrasions all over his face, and the pain that he feels is displayed by his stance.

Many of the negatives from these black and white mug shots are damaged from dirt and mildew, but two American photographers, Douglas Niven and Christopher Riley, who discovered the negatives, are restoring and preserving them. These pictures are not for the faint of heart. One woman who had inadvertently wandered over from the Adams exhibit, told her husband very agitatedly, "I don't want to see these."

The exhibit, a testimony to a historic event, was organized by the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University and was drawn from the book "Facing Death: Portraits from Cambodia's Killing Fields," published by Twin Palm Publishing. On Sunday, Feb. 22, at 2 p.m., Ly Soung, a Cambodian-born Tucsonan will discuss his family's flight from Cambodia at the CCP. This free exhibit continues through March 1. Call 621-7968 for more information.