Shot Notes

This picture was taken at Tuol Sleng, the infamous site of Security Prison 21 (S-21) during the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970′s.  The site was previously a high school, but then converted into a prison, where over 10,000 people were torchered, and then lead off to the killing fields to be exterminated.  The name Toul Sleng literally means “poisonous hill,” a name given to the site by the Khmer Rouge because it was the site where those who were “poisoning” the new regime were held.

I have visited the site, now a genocide museum, many times, and on this occasion, saw a Cambodian woman gazing at some of the many pictures the Khmer Rouge took and so I snapped off a shot.  It is very unusual to see Cambodians in the museum, for most would rather forget the past, and live in the present.

Leave a Reply