I AM THE FIVE

Lim Mony, Yi Soksan, Nay Vanda, Ny Sokha and Ny Chakrya – these are the five human rights activists who are in pre-trial detention for 365 days. Acknowledging this one year mark, we present you 365 portraits of people willing to send a message of support to them and to the civil society in general. Each photographed individual is someone who felt dearly the impact of the activists’ work in his/her life, or felt inspired by their courage to stand up for the human dignity of the communities they worked with. Each photo is a solidarity gesture to show they are not forgotten. For the captured moment, each person becomes one of the five:

We are all the FIVE.

All the photos were taken in and around Phnom Penh, in civil society organizations and others human rights defenders, iconic underprivileged communities (many of them having faced or currently facing risks of forced eviction) such as Boeung Kak Lake, Borei Keila and the White Building. And being a project based in portraits, a medium typically focused on facial expression, here the personality and uniqueness of each individual can be seen through the clothes and background surroundings, often their homes or working places, a collection showing the variety of supporters of the FIVE independently of social and economic status.

Some of the 365 portraits: