There are no lies in a photograph. It is simply a moment captured from time waiting to be interpreted. Some photos are joyous, like those of a recently married couple or a first birthday. Others are beautiful, like a photo from National Geographic or one found on a trendy hipster Instagram profile. Some photos are haunting. They appear ordinary but there is a horrible story embedded within.
This photo of 13 men is quite ordinary. It seems as though they have just arrived somewhere, and have awkwardly posed for a camera.
Imagine the photographer trying to coordinate their pose; the man in the back is laughing about something funny that has been said. The one in the middle stands out, he looks like an enthusiastic university graduate ready to make a stamp on his world, eager to make a difference. The one on the left looks kind, he is smiling and has an open body language.
They have arrived in a Mercedes and look like they are happy to stretch their legs. They are probably quite tired after what may have been a long journey.
What is so haunting about this photo is the story of what these men would do. The man on the left is Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, whose regime would cause a quarter of the Cambodian population to die. The 'enthusiastic university graduate' is Comrade Duch, the meticulous chief of Tuol Sleng Prison. These seemingly ordinary looking men did atrocious things.
It is tempting to ignore their normality and solely focus on the traits that made them demons. It is easier to accept horrible things when they have been done by an 'evil' tyrant. It is harder to accept horrible feats when focusing on the ordinary aspects of the perpetrators.
Many of the men met at a French University (having been sent there on scholarship). Imagine these academics sitting around at a bar hatching their plan to build a revolution. Imagine their hope and excitement, and how they would have held onto this 'ideal'. Perhaps they were good students, perhaps they were late handing in essays, perhaps they enjoyed sipping lattes and watching Parisians walk past.
There are two important historical spots in Phnom Penh: the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng prison. During the 1975–1978 regime, the Khmer Rouge would take their prisoners to Tuol Sleng and torture them until they confessed to whatever their torturers suggested. These were typically