Indigenous Highlanders

hilltribe farm in northeast Cambodia

the winding road

The thatched hut of an ethnic minority farmer clings to the hillside of a cassava farm. This is Northeast Cambodia as it is today: the wild allure of virgin forrest replaced by a beauty more uniform, more cultivated, more agrarian.

ferry across the sesan river

Rural Ferry, Cambodia Style

The easiest way to get across the river. 50 cents gets you and your motorcycle across. Just hope that no-one freaks out and causes the boat to capsize… that happens too. Ratanakiri, Cambodia. Please feel free to share my images—they are meant to be seen! Use them for your non-profit, on your blog, for fun […]

Matt weaving - featured image

Weaving through the Ages

I thought she looked aged and wise and noble, as she deftly wove palm fronds together, a mat taking shape before my eyes. I watched for a while, trying to figure out how she was doing it, imagining if I could accomplish the same thing. I never did figure the pattern out—it was pretty complex. […]

Tribal Farm House in Cambodia

Farm House

I love the April sky in Cambodia; it’s always full of gorgeous puffy white clouds. Beautiful. Every Highlander has two houses, one in the village and one at the farm. The farm one is usually a little more than a lean-to, like this one above. During busy planting or harvesting times everyone lives out at […]

casting a net from a dugout canoe in Ratanakiri

Video: Northeast Cambodia 2013 – វីដេអូ:​ បង ប្អូន ខ្មែរ លើ នៅ រតនគីរី​ ។

So I put together a demo reel the other day, made up of some work from the first half of this year. It’s nearly all just video shot in Ratanakiri and Northeast Cambodia for my current job. Nearly all the shots feature Brao people, an ethnic minority group who live along the Sesan River . […]

Brao man on the banks of the Sesan in Ratanakiri, Cambodia

On the banks of the Sesan River – អង្គុយ​ លេង​ នៅ​ ទន្លេ​ សេសាន

The gorgeous Sesan river in Ratanakiri, Northeast Cambodia. If the planned Lower Sesan 3 and 4 dams are approved by the government (and financed by a Chinese or Vietnamese company), all of this will be under water someday; the Brao people, who’ve lived here for thousands of years, will be see their ancestral lands disappear. […]

Tampuan girl with striking, light-colored eyes

Nearly Sharbat Gula

She had the most striking eyes; she’s one of the few Asians I’ve ever seen with this shade. I’ve seen other Tampuans with striking eyes, but normally for how intense and dark they are. She almost reminds me of Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed Afghan girl of National Geographic fame. Please feel free to share my […]

smoking homegrown pipe tobacco

តា​ ជក់ ខ្សៀ មួយ

Whew, it’s been a week since the last upload! I have the dual problems of spotty Cambodia internet (out for 4 days) and a job that’s kicked into high gear over the last week. I haven’t even had time to process photos from my time in Laos a couple weeks ago. Soon, hopefully. Anyway, here’s […]

crossing on a ferry in the early morning.

Early Morning River Crossing

Crossing the Sesan River, early in the morning, in Northeast Cambodia. On one side of the river, there’s a phone number scrawled on a piece of plastic affixed to a tree; if you need to cross, you call the number, and hope that the ferry operator isn’t too busy to come. Thankfully he came within […]