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Phnom Penh in Glorious Colour (1974)

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These photos suddenly appeared like a coda. They are from a single colour negative film which I recently (Feb. 2019) found in a box with a lot of old photo stuff. I don’t remember taking them and there were no prints. I remember the woman, the sarong and the jackfruit tree outside my house, and the wedding couple look familiar, although I can’t put names to them. One out-of-focus photo shows me and Ung wearing the same shirts as in the B&W photos from Wat Phnom (see “ETAPP”), so it might have been taken the same day. The acquisition of a Colour Film seems to have sent me on a postcard picture rampage. The flame trees were in bloom and, being Colourful, became the focus of half the pictures. This also tells us the photos were taken in April or May. The shadows show most of the shots were taken in the early morning…but why did I take two of almost everything? Usually I was very frugal with my film. In most cases, one shot is better than the other, but since there aren’t many, I haven’t bothered to select. Going around finding the locations might seem a piece of cake, and so it was with anything that featured the Independence Monument or the Royal Palace. But some of those places have altered beyond recognition, and I can only guess where they were. The flame trees are gone and shrubs have taken their place. The hideous monster Naga World has totally devoured the White Building (and is even now jumping on its grave), and as for the traffic and the skyline….!

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