Sunday, January16th, 2011
CAMBODIA. Phnom Penh. 30/12/2010: Boeung Kak Lake being filled with sand by development company Shukaku Inc. and evicting 4000 families.
via © John Vink / Magnum Photos » Quickly, Before You Party.
Monday, November8th, 2010
Why do we travel?
I’ve been after an answer to that question since I went to Eastern Europe in 2005. Could it be that we travel because of a deep-seated yearning of our ancestors? Perhaps there is still a bit of the hunter-gatherer in our genetic make-up that requires us to search. For the people we have descended from, nomadic lifestyles were a way of survival.
Several millennia later, I’m traveling to Vietnam and Cambodia for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. Initially, I was going to begin working on a new photography project: photographing the re-uses of French colonial architecture. However, as I’m writing this, gearing up, and getting all my paperwork in order… I’m going for a reason much more deeply ingrained: curiosity.
Wednesday, July21st, 2010
“Autrefois, maison privée
Maintenant, poste de police.
Temps de Sihanouk, cinema
Aujord’hui, bureau de la Partie.”“Before (once upon a time), private house.
Now, Police station.
In Sihanouk’s time, movie theater.
Today, headquarters of the Party.”“Spoken quietly over my shoulder by my cyclo driver.”
Phnom Penh, 1988
Bill Burke
Friday, July16th, 2010
Disasters of Humanity Tourism
Yesterday I purchased my ticket to travel to Vietnam in November. While in the region, I am hoping to travel to Cambodia. Mainly, I want to see the obvious ruins of Angkor Wat, but I am now also debating a trip to Phnom Penh to visit the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
My reasons for traveling to Southeast Asia are completely personal. I’m not going there for business or research. I’m headed in that direction mostly because I need a break to regain my focus on architecture and photography. It is impossible for me to do this without immersing myself in the people in this area actually live and make use of space.
Is it ethical to travel to a place where crimes against humanity have been committed? (Especially if I am coming from a beach resort in Nha Trang?)