The river, and the salute to the moon
Cambodia puts two things on the same stretch of water. Bon Om Touk is the river festival, with long boats and crews of rowers pulling in time, and four of these pictures come from it — a small boat racer, a rower’s rhythm, lights strung over the rice, the moon on the water. The moon is honoured in its own right at Sampeah Preah Khe, the salute to the moon, with flattened rice, Ok Ambok, eaten underneath it.
The rest of the set is quieter and closer to the ground: an apsara dancer minding her hands, a grandmother folding a banana leaf, a temple cat, a sandal given back to whoever dropped it. It is a fair portrait of the night, which is not all boats — most of it is a family on a mat with something to share.
