Memory of Tuol Sleng Prison, child 6, 2010

Chlorophyll print and resin

11.125 x 9.75 in.

Binh Danh reconfigures traditional photographic techniques and processes in unconventional ways to delve into the connection between history, identity, and place. As a child who immigrated to the US from war-torn Vietnam in 1979, the memories and trauma of his diasporic experience serve as the foundation for his investigative practice. In his highly acclaimed series of chlorophyll prints, Danh uses photosynthesis to print portraits from the Vietnam War era directly onto the surfaces of the leaves.

From 1975 to 1979, almost 2 million people lost their lives to murder and famine when the Khmer Rouge forced the urban population into the countryside to fulfill their ideal of an agrarian society. Anybody who wasn't "Khmer Cambodian," including many Vietnamese people living in Cambodia, was to be "executed." Many would suggest that the violent backdrop of the Vietnam War encouraged the Khmer Rouge to kill indiscriminately. Today, Cambodia is full of evidence of the Khmer Rouge genocide. One place is now known as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. While visiting this museum, I created much documentation of the interior. I roamed the rooms and hallways and imagined the horror that took place in front of me.

As part of the victim's testimonies, photographs were made of them. For me, the portraits are disturbing because they put faces on the victims, and they started to look like people I know. Like relatives and friends - loved ones murdered. History and generation destroyed - disappeared in thin air. So, I made altars for these victims: A place where we can meditate on history, the present moment, and our mortality. When we experience the art, we become them; they become us. We die a little; they live a little. This is a Buddhist practice called: "meditation on compassion."

Courtesy of the Artist and Haines Gallery, San Francisco