Phnom Penh, 12201, CAMBODIA

"A 1974 photo by Mr. Dith of shells being fired at a village northwest of Phnom Penh." (NY Times)

A little variance here from the norm. The above photo is by Dith Pran. Mr. Dith died today at age 65.

My words will not do Mr. Dith justice; please read the NY Times story Dith Pran, 'Killing Fields' Photographer, Dies at 65. The story also has a link to a gallery of photos by and of Dith Pran.

A Cambodian, Mr. Dith was a "journalistic partner" to NY Times reporter Sydney Schanberg, a self-taught photographer, and for four years a prisoner (essentially a starved "slave" at hard labor) of the Khmer Rouge. He later became an official photographer with the NY Times. His story was told in the Oscar winning movie The Killing Fields.

Mr. Dith is especially important as a photographer -- in my opinion -- as he lived the life of those around him: he photographed his people, in his country, and lived the same war as did other Cambodians. That he survived is miraculous. Like all photographers of war, Mr. Dith risked his life to bring his vision to the world at large. For that he is to be thanked.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Dith Pran, but I did have the pleasure of seeing him on assignment at The Brooklyn Museum about 20 years ago. He stood perhaps 20 feet from a group of us, and we marveled to be in his presence.