A Rejection of Photos, Not the Photographer
A Swedish photographer seeks truth and reconciliation through an exhibit of photographs he took on a 1978 Khmer Rouge propaganda tour. 
Photographer Gunnar Bergstrom, who toured the country underthe Khmer Rouge in 1978 as part of a group of Swedish sympathizers, began aseries of seminars and photo exhibitions Tuesday in an effort to come to gripswith the past and explain to Cambodians how he was denied the truth. The 93-photograph exhibit, “Gunnar in the Living Hell,”features never-seen photographs from Bergstrom’s personal archive. Cambodiansin Phnom Penh,where the exhibit opened Tuesday, expressed discontent with the photographs,but not with the man who took them. Photos that show people carrying earth in shoulder-polebaskets, smiling and eating together, do not reflect the reality of the regime,said Prum Net, a 66-year-old farmer from Takeo province, who was invited to theexhibition by the Documentation Center of Cambodia. “In fact, people looked really upset under the Pol Potregime. They were forced to work, not smiling,” he said. Phnom Penhresident Keo Sovann, who was examining the photograph of a boy undertaking mathat a black board, said that during the time of the Khmer Rouge no such thing existed. “This is just a fake photograph that the Khmer Rouge set upto show the world that the regime looked good, that they were educated people,but in fact, there was none,” he said. As part of the Swedish Cambodian Friendship Association, Bergstromspent 14 days in Cambodiain August 1978, where he was given an idealized tour of factories and fields bytop leaders of the regime, including Pol Pot and Ieng Sary. Pol Pot died in 1998 without seeing trial. Ieng Sary is nowin a Khmer Rouge tribunal detention facility, facing atrocity crimes along withfour other jailed leaders of the ultra-Maoist regime. Reach Sambath, spokesman for the tribunal, said at theopening Tuesday that the photos may not be acceptable to some survivors of theregime. “They were just propaganda photos, rather than reality,” hesaid. Still, Reach Sambath praised the efforts of the photographerfor his “courage” in showing the exhibition and accepting that he had been dupedby the Khmer Rouge. Som Pov, a 63-year-old commune chief from Takeo, said thateven if the photos did not reflect reality, Bergstrom had simply capturedimages of subjects organized for him. “Even now, when an inspector comes to inspect, there must bean arrangement beforehand,” she said. “So Gunnar was just taking the already arrangedphotographs.” The exhibit will now move to other provinces, includingKampong Cham, Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, Battambang and Takeo. The exhibit willgo on permanent display at the TuolSleng GenocideMuseum in December.