Phnom Penh Street at Night

Phnom Penh Street at Night - Chris Coles

Phnom Penh's come a million miles since the Khmer Rouge and Year Zero but it's still a city with an edge, especially at night. Entire buildings and city blocks are often dark and unlit, sidewalks and streets in disrepair, piles of garbage are strewn in every direction. A small group of "Big Men" have their Mercedes, Toyota Land Cruisers and Lexus SUV, but most of the people who inhabit Phnom Penh grind away on almost nothing, living day to day, no real savings, no prospects, a daily darwinistic struggle for low-level survival .....with just a faint glimmer of hope far, far away, on a distant neon horizon.....

Khmer Boy About To Be Executed

Khmer Boy About To Be Executed

Were they human, the people who executed this young Khmer boy? Only too human apparently, deeply flawed, very imperfect, following the dictates of "Angkor", never forgetting that they themselves might be next on "Angkor's" mysterious list of those who need to be executed..............

Young Khmer Man about to be Executed

Young Khmer Man about to be Executed

One of the hundreds of thousands of young Khmer men executed by the Khmer Rouge....for no real reason...of no value.........expendable......."Angkor" put his name on a list...........

Phnom Penh Baby

Phnom Penh Baby - Chris Coles

Born long after the end of Khmer Rouge and the death of Pol Pot, he'll grow up in the new Phnom Penh of status, privilege and wealth, shiny SUV's, hi-rise condos, giant plasma tv's with satellite hook-ups, hi-speed internet connections, 4 and 5G smart phones, people from all over the world wandering through........

Wedding Island Banquet Hall Phnom Penh

 

Banquet Hall, Phnom Penh Wedding Island - Chris Coles

A thousand guests, all dressed up, sit down to eat, drink and celebrate a hi-end super expensive Cambodian wedding between someone somehow connected to a "Big Man" to someone else connected to another "Big Man"......live band, Khmer pop singer, dancers...lots of gifts, some of them cash stuffed in envelopes....it's the new Phnom Penh, the new Cambodia, rising from the ashes of the Khmer Rouge nightmare....

Phnom Penh Neon

Phnom Penh Neon - Chris Coles

The Phnom Penh night's full of neon, hissing and blinking in Khmer, English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, sometimes just abstract and pure, as if to celebrate the sheer pleasure and joy of light and to try to blot out the Khmer Rouge darkness that came before...

Phnom Penh Niteclub

Phnom Penh Niteclub Brothel - Chris Coles

A bit of neon, bright lights, satin and silk, a few girls waiting for Khmer or Chinese customers......after so many years of the Khmer Rouge, so many millions put to death, maybe commercial sex has its good points...or at least is not so bad.....

Little Girl Executed by Khmer Rouge

Little Girl Executed by Khmer Rouge

A little girl, probably not even 10....what was her "crime"....who gave the order, signed the paper, aimed the gun and pulled the trigger....and why......