Full Frame: Cambodia’s spirit world

Full Frame features photo essays and conversations with photographers in the field.

This project is a first glimpse into the Cambodian spirit world — it can never be more than a glimpse, for an outsider. Visiting foreigners — and those who have lived here for years — know this spirit world exists, but we often miss and misinterpret the common gestures: a bit of graffiti, a monk's breath, the flames of a candle. This world holds great appeal to an impoverished population that is poorly connected to the wider world, and unprotected from threats of modern progress.

I have worked as a photojournalist in Cambodia regularly (and irregularly) since 1998. I like to think this gives me a fairly good insight into daily life here, but I also understand that I will never be able to view the Cambodian cosmos as Khmers do. That cosmos is a blend of the ancient Hinduism of Angkor; spirit worship stemming in part from centuries of life hacked from jungles; and Buddhism, particularly its prayers, arcane writing and stories of religious men reborn into better lives.

The title “Be Unscared” comes from a sign at the Temple of the Floating Tree near Phnom Penh, home to a monk with an elephant tusk that people believe cures mental illness. While the sign echoes one of the teachings of the Buddha, it also sums up what Cambodians have wanted for centuries. It's a call for calm in the face of a dangerous world, whether the danger comes from beasts of the jungle or the people next door.

The photos were shot on film between January and May 2009, often while working on other assignments. Put another way, I don't have exact dates for when the photos were shot. In the end, the exact date makes little difference — I could just as well have shot the photos yesterday or a hundred years ago.

About the photographer:

For the last 12 years, photojournalist Jerry Redfern has worked on stories across Asia for publications around the globe. He now also spends part of the year crashing bikes at home in New Mexico. Author Karen Coates is the other half of his life. They often work on stories and projects together, including post-Khmer Rouge life in Cambodia, to ancient coffins in Thailand, to the people still dying from U.S. bombs in Laos, 35 years after the end of war.