Pagoda Boys.

From the beginning of May until the end of the June 2008, I lived in a pagoda in rural Cambodia. In the countryside of Kampong Cham, I was gracefully invited to make my home. I accepted.

The subjects of the photographs at the bottom of this entry, these boys and men, hold a special place in my heart. These are my roommates.

Pagoda boys make their living in the temple. They serve the needs of the monks through transportation, cooking, cleaning, and other duties; and in return, the monks give each of them a place to sleep and a passion to learn.

Looking at their faces, a casual visitor would almost never assume that some are destitute or that some face family issues completely out of their hands. But this is the case for several. In portraying this subject, my roommates at Nokorbachey Temple, above all I do not want to show anything that is wanting or devoid. Poverty certainly touches their lives, but the resilience of their hearts moves beyond material. I want the viewer to see the beauty of their hearts, the charm of their eyes, the sparkle of their smiles, and the nonsense of their humor. These are my friends. We speak in broken English and Khmer, and some of us rarely exchange words, but our smiles have broken the boundary lines between cultures.

These are my roommates.