καιρός remembered

New life, new hope

What does the boy in the photograph see, what does he feel, and what associations does the image of the woman evoke in him? His apparently intense gaze and the way he is holding the woman by the arm suggest that she reminds him of his mother or another close relative. He seems particularly fascinated by her appearance.
Given that we are here in post-Pol Pot Cambodia, we are quickly inclined to seek an interpretation in the country’s recent history and in the traumatised state in which most families had to rebuild their lives after 1979.
War trauma and the trauma of broken families can certainly influence and hinder the well-being of a new generation, but as time passes, it is to be expected that the rough edges will gradually smooth out and young minds will be able to open up to feelings of playfulness, curiosity and joy.

Life needs beauty; it needs kindness. This photograph radiates both. The gesture of the girl who offered me a tender coconut … I still remember it, and it still moves me. In her kind, open gaze, I saw a new sign of life, of youth, of hope for her country, which has been ravaged by turmoil.

Photo of the week: Battambang, Cambodia, 2000