Facing Death: Portraits From Cambodia's Killing Fields
25 Jan 2000 - 07 Apr 2001
In April 1975, the Communist forces of the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, began a brutal four-year regime in Cambodia. The human costs of this revolution were immense. S-21 was a secret prison operated by the regime in the capital city of Phnom Penh. Individuals accused of treason, along with their families, were brought to S-21 where they were photographed upon arrival. They were tortured until they confessed to whatever crimes their captors charged them with, and then executed. Of the 14,200 people who were imprisoned at S-21, there are only seven known survivors. After Phnom Penh was liberated by the Vietnamese army in 1979, S-21 was transformed into The Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide. The photographic archive was cleaned, catalogued, and printed in 1994 by the Photo Archive Group, a non-profit organization founded by American photo-journalists Chris Riley and Doug Niven. This exhibition of 100 prints is organized and circulated by the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, in cooperation with the Photo Archive Group, El Segundo, CA, Chris Riley, Director.