In the heart of Phnom Penh stands a former high school whose walls hold some of humanity's darkest memories - Tuol Sleng, or S21. While time has softened many wounds, this site remains a raw, unvarnished testament to Cambodia's devastating encounter with the Khmer Rouge regime.
What once echoed with children's laughter became a chamber of horrors under Pol Pot's rule. Classrooms where students once learned were transformed into cells and torture chambers, where countless "enemies of the state" faced unspeakable cruelty before their final journey to the infamous Killing Fields.
Unlike its counterpart, the more organised and tourist-oriented Killing Fields, Tuol Sleng stands in haunting authenticity. The site's preserved state serves as a testimony to Cambodia's traumatic past - peeling paint, rusted bed frames, and crude cells remain largely untouched. Here, history isn't packaged or polished; it confronts visitors with its full, devastating truth.
Through my lens, I attempted to capture this unfiltered reality - not just of a memorial, but of a wound in Cambodia's soul that still aches. These images seek to honour both the site's grim historical significance and the countless lives that were shattered within these walls. They stand as visual witnesses to humanity's capacity for darkness, and more importantly, to our duty to remember and learn from such moments.
