Photographer zooms in on a marginalised community in Cambodia

What is the story of a marginalised group in Cambodia, still reeling from the after-effect of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, and suspicious of the dealings of “mainstream society”? Perhaps one photographer’s work will give a voice to these people.

Pein Cheong Lee’s minorities:Report “Cambodia”, a photographic exhibition, comprises a series of 34 black and white photographs of the Cham people shot in different locations – Phnom Penh, Kampot Province and Kep – in Cambodia during his time spent there with Malaysian non-profit organisation Hospitals Beyond Boundaries (HBB).

The Cham community in Cambodia is a minority group and make up a large percentage of the Muslim population of Cambodia. With the help of HBB, Lee has been documenting the works that the NGO is doing with the Cham people, building medical facilities and providing medical assistance for them. The exhibition works are a snapshot of his photographic documentation of the work and the Cham people he has met on his four visits to the country between February and May this year.

“During the Khmer Rouge regime, many of them (the Cham) were killed. But now there is a resurgence of sorts, for instance, of local ethnic Cham doctors, so things have come full circle. It will be interesting to see how they will develop, as a community and as a country, in parallel with the rest of South-East Asia,” says Lee, who says his work in Cambodia is an on-going project.

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http://www.star2.com/culture/arts/2016/07/04/photographer-zooms-in-on-a-marginalised-community-in-cambodia/