Wow. Must have been immensly exciting to go there at that time. I went in the rainy season, so I managed to avoid the stream of tourists too thankfully, but back in the 90s it must have been the wild wild east for sure. It’s truly a special place.
Hi Kristian, special place, for sure. Exciting - yes, BUT. So, when I was there it was in 2004 - the civil war had ended only 4 years before. One could feel the place was still “edgy” as people were being very careful about how they interacted and what was spoken. I was there for a purpose that involved meeting with people from various sides of the policy spectrum and at one point it got a bit tense. So, you can imagine when all that was done, it was a real relief to have a couple of days to spend just doing photography on the Angkor Wat site. Photography is a wonderful stress-reliever because one can just immerse oneself and forget about everything else. It was all-consuming and an awesome experience. Wish I had had more time there, but circumstances didn’t allow that. So you would have a much deeper understanding of the place than I could. But the photos at least were worthwhile.
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I went there in 2010 the first time. It had started to calm down, but there were winds of anarchy in the air and unrest at the Thai border, it changed rapidly until the next times I went, first in 1012 and then again 2015 and 1016. It cleaned up and the tourism became immense. I have never experienced a place change that much in such a short time. Both for good and bad, but mostly for good. I have focused on the people and the aftermath of the genocide in my work, but Angkor Wat was very useful for me to go into depth of the cultural heritage of the nation and it has been a focus of interest for me since I saw Apocalypse Now! when I was in my early teens ( the sculptures at the end of the movie are replicas of the Bayon Temple.) I recommend to listen to the podcast In the Shadows of Utopia. It goes into depth on the history of the country. My two last portraits in my series are of Chum Mey and Bou Meng, the two last survivors from Tuol Sleng. I hope to get it done while they are still alive. Exciting to hear that you were in the midst of it all. Photography has been my saviour in processing living there for long periods of time, seeing so much suffering and consequences of violence, the innocent people who had to deal with the nationalistic and geopolitic struggle which ripped this nation apart. But they always have Angkor Wat to be proud of, and it’s touching to see how the place gives every single Khmer a sense of dignity.
Very well put Kristian.