Cambodia has been completed.
Although the nation has some major issues such as a culture of littering and infamous corruption at every level of society, Cambodia was one of my favorite countries this far.
Everywhere we went there were people who were smiling and going about their daily business with little seemingly weighing them down. Cambodian people have a certain lightness about them that is hard to find elsewhere. In my 2 weeks I saw hundreds, maybe even 1000 children, and not one time did I see a Cambodian child crying. Not once. Everyone was always so friendly.
To look back on my time I of course have the many pictures I took and the memories but typically the pictures serve to trigger the memories. Pictures tell but a fraction of the story. There are many elements that the picture doesn't capture. A picture can't tell someone why a particular photo was interesting or what the person you photographed said right before or after. A photo can't tell you what the humidity felt like, or how the air had a mix of lemongrass, incense, and garbage. A photo can't tell you how you wanted to take a different photo but you had to line up your shot this way to avoid another tourist being in the shot. Really, pictures just don't do it justice.
But years after a picture was taken, if some of those memories can be triggered just by looking at that image, then maybe a picture is just fine.
1 comment:
Great thoughts about photography. You are right: pictures don't capture smells. Smells linger in your mind. I still remember the smell of coconut oil fragrance during early morning walk on our honeymoon in Honolulu.....it brings me back to that place everytime I smell that odour.
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