NEW YORK—Pete Pin spent the first years of his life in a Cambodian refugee camp. As an infant, Pin and his parents emigrated to Long Beach, Calif., like many survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide.
In the U.S., Pin’s parents did not teach him his native language so as to guarantee, as they saw it, his integration into American society and his chance for a future. They never spoke of their experience at the Cambodian death camps, also known as the Killing Fields, where 1.7 million people lost their lives under the rule of the Khmer Rouge.
It wasn’t until Pin got older, as he watched documentaries and read books, that he learned of his nation’s history. This got him thinking about his background, and the responsibilities that came with.
Pin, 30, is not a first generation Cambodian-American. He is not really a second generation one either since he was born in a refugee camp. “I’m not American, but I’m not Cambodian either. I am a part of the ‘1 ½ generation,’” he said. “I find this generation of Cambodians fascinating because we have the unique responsibility of telling our parents’ stories.”
Since 2010, Pin has been working on a long-term photography project called “The Cambodian Diaspora,” where he documents the stories of Cambodian refugees in places where large numbers of them reside, such as Philadelphia, Long Beach, and the Bronx. Through photography, Pin captures the legacy of the genocide, trauma, assimilation, and the problems they face today.
His project began at home. The first pictures he took for “The Cambodian Diaspora” were of his grandmother and father. He asked his grandmother to recount her memories of the Killing Fields; it was the first time they had this conversation.
It was a conversation that was missing in many Cambodian-American homes, but a conversation that needed to be had. Such conversations are what Pin hopes to spark with his documentary.
His grandmother told him about how she dyed their clothes black, the color of the revolution, and pledged loyalty to the Khmer Rouge commander.
