RITHY, CHÉA, KIM SOUR ET LES AUTRES (Cambodia, 2000-2001)

What do you do with memories that could best be forgotten? And how can you understand a country that is built on the remnants of an unspeakable bloodbath? Laurence Leblanc went to Cambodia, with the question of how children live with the horrors of the Killing Fields, traces of which are still present everywhere, however great an effort is made to erase them. She photographed the children, in black and white, and out of focus – as a dream world that touches on themes like childhood innocence, time and memory. Faces are as good as absent in Leblanc’s work. The style is spiritual, almost transparent. ‘This was the best way to express what I felt’, she says of her approach. RITHY, CHÉA, KIM SOUR ET LES AUTRES shows how deep a bond Leblanc feels with Cambodia and with the children.