Alive reveals the intimate memories in old photos and usual objects entrusted to me by local Cambodian, forty years after the Khmer Rouge regime.

Chapter I: Battambang (2014)
Since I was a young boy in Cambodia, I have often listened to my parents, siblings, and relatives as they shared their past and painful experiences. In 1975, during the fall of the Lon Nol regime, my parents, like so many others, threw away many old pictures and identity cards in order to hide their background. If not, they would have been killed immediately for being educated. However, some people took great risks to keep photographs to remember their loved ones, and objects which held importance for them. I started this series from my family’s memories, but my purpose is to expand the project to other families throughout Cambodia. It is now a race against time, as living witnesses are gradually disappearing. These photographs and objects are evidence of a time in history. War can kill victims, but it cannot kill the memory of the survivors. These memories should be kept alive, known and shared in the present, and preserved for the next generations.

Chapter II: Logan (2015)
What about memories with other objects of survivors who they were former refugees at the border camps, and have fled Cambodia to live in others countries such as Australia, France, and The United States? In 2015, after meeting with Cambodian-Australians living in Logan, I became fascinated with the objects and photographs that Cambodian migrants had brought with them to Australia, especially from the border camps of Thailand during the 70s and 80s.

With the support of