Wednesday, January 25, 2006


One day as I reached the kids, they asked me to take them to "ski"!
This was Cambodia… so I said: what do you mean by ski? They said: ski…!
So I said: OK where shall we go get to this “ski” place?
I followed them along the river. Then we entered a play ground. At the edge of this place there was a ground full of roller blades. Old skates with torn laces, and broken wheels… In a big basket there were so many socks. It’s so hot in Cambodia, which makes it hard to wear socks. But you see when you want to put on a skate you have to wear socks. The kids sit and wore socks and then put on the roller blades. I did the same!
Later I took some pictures from them. They did the same!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006


They seem to have lots of fun, taking my picture. Especially when I am playing with them or eating with the women near the Pagoda.


Once I asked them: what do you think about friendship? I asked them to go and take some pictures from their friends. Among all the photos they took, there is one photo that I’m going to upload it later as a separate picture. In this photo one of the most talented kids had taken a self-portrait with his friend. To my surprise he was the only one who had been taken his self-portrait even when I had asked him to take his friend's.


You see this baby with angry, sleepy, quiet eyes, staring at the camera?
I remember the first time I saw him he was 2 months old. His grandmother was feeding him with a bottle of milk. I sat near them as I was listening to his granny who was talking about something I didn’t have any idea about. I remember when his granny went to the river to bring water in a pot for washing him; I looked at a fly who was sitting on his eye. When she came back I helped her with washing the baby. There were some young men staring at me who later came near me and asked me if I feel like BUYING that kid for 2000$. In fact I was scared and disappointed at the same time by this offer. I forced myself to stay and not leave because I knew if I had gone I would have never return.
Now after almost 2 years they are so used to me. They never ask me such questions. I suppose now they have recognized that I’m there to take pictures, to teach the kids to take photos…


We sometimes play games. One of our favorite games is to guess where a picture has been taken. We take turns to guess the place in every photo. It helps kids a lot with taking good pictures. To be able to win the game they should always be aware of every little sign around them. It also helps me to get to know lots of places.


I remember the first time I saw these kids. I was almost panicked because of the whole situation I was in. I was there, in Cambodia to work on my dissertation but as soon as I got there as a photographer, I figured out that I could not take any pictures from all those mothers who where shouting, all those men who where staring at me and all those hungry kids who were begging for “yum yum”. Under those circumstances, the last thing I could ever do was to take pictures. So I just started going to the river side, sitting with those people, listening to what they were saying without understanding even a word, and eating with them. I played with the kids, let them comb my hair, watched them jumping in the river, and let them touch my camera and look through the view finder. After a year, I already knew most of them by name. Seeing their joy and excitement, I came up with the idea to collect the photos they were taking with my camera. I printed the pictures and gave them to the kids. They were so happy to see themselves and their friends on those pieces of paper. I assume some of them had never held their own pictures in their hands before. After two years, I almost know those kids who have a good eye, the ones who love to take pictures. I collect all their photos and put them in separate files. I also started to develop my work and teach them how to take pictures, to give them basic knowledge of the things that can make a picture more powerful. I try to teach them to think before pushing the shutter’s botton…
I love to watch them when they’re taking pictures and to watch their pictures afterwards.