the hair between us
before the curtain calls
beauty and the pigs
one who is content
people grow wings
pale woods
median
..

Side Quest 1
Side Quest 2




Bio

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Samin and her sisters, Sameat and Sreymom, might be the last to carry on their family’s rice farming tradition in Battambang, one of Cambodia’s main rice-growing provinces. Their family has worked the land for generations, relying on the rhythms of the rains to sow and harvest. But these days, floods, droughts, and changing weather patterns are posing a threat to their way of life. With debts mounting and the future unclear, the women have had to find other ways to keep going. They now also raise pigs and run a small beauty salon out of their home.

Beauty and the Pigs is a glimpse into the lived realities of farmers across Cambodia’s rice-growing regions, where weathering the new realities of the climate has become integral to their survival. It is also a story closely shared by countless women across rural Cambodia who carry the weight of change in ordinary acts of living.

This project was realised with the support of Noor Images as part of the 2023 Visualising Climate Crisis program.

photography series + video portrait. 2023














Video portrait
4K, 1.90.1, colour, 3 minutes, 2023.











Pictures of Samin Kan taped to the wall of her beauty parlour. 
"I used to be pretty but now look at my face. Working in the fields meant I had to sacrifice my looks. But it's not worth it.", says Samin. 
Sameat, Samin and Sreymom's niece, Thida, eighteen, at her aunt Sreymom's home. Her mother wants her to preserve her good looks by staying under the shade. Instead of working the fields, she helps out at the beauty parlour
A depleted rain-fed water reservoir shared among the Kan sisters' families to clean and care for livestock.
After a night of rain, Botoum, fifteen, looks for cherries. She says she often finds new cherries after a night of rain.
Sameat, Samin and Srey Mom's mother, retired in her seventies, sits by the stupa of her late husband who was also a rice farmer like his parents before him. She is mainly cared for by Samin.
Sreymom collects weeds from a field once used for farming rice. The weeds are used as feed for livestock.
Neang Kong Rei, the "left-behind princess” from the legend of Puthisen and Neang Kong Rei.
Samin looks on from the gate of her home. "I'm not married. I have my mother to look after, I can't look after a husband. Plus, I've seen how women suffer with men", she says.
Sisters Samin, Sameat, and Sreymom Kan gaze upon the rice field they have recently replanted from scratch, following a heatwave and drought that claimed their previous crop.
Cousins Thida, Boutum and baby Ti on their family rice field. "We can no longer rely on the sky to help us. So I encourage the children to aspire for other things in life. I don’t want the girls to suffer the same fate", says Ti's mother, Sreymom.



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