(Warning: These images are disturbing)

When I arrived at Phnom Praseth, I was numbed by the horror of what I saw. The bodies had probably been there a few days and the stench was terrible. The wrists were bound with wire and they had been gutted. I had never seen anything like it. Yet the Cambodians out there, outside the city, were seeing this all the time, and later under Pol Pot it became a commonplace everyday reality. I had a camera in my hands so I took pictures, like a machine on remote pilot. My friend, Joe Sedlacek, was disgusted. “How can you do that?” he was saying. I said, “It’s here. I’ve got a camera.” I thought: “I should never forget this.” And I did not. But when I remember, it is always in colour, not black and white. Red and yellow and purple and lurid pink and blue, the garish rainbow colours of rotting humanity.