stUART iSETT - pETE pIN - Silong Chhun

To mark the launch of ‘On the Corners of Argyle and Glenwood’ an intimate series of photographs of Cambodian refugees who had settled in Chicago’s north side in the 1990’s. We have brought Isett, Pin and Chhun together to reflect on the work and the collaboration of bringing this work together nearly 30 years later. The book explores the complexities of the early diaspora, not only the streets but also the tender moments of a community in transition, held together by family (គ្រួសារ, “krousar”) and tradition.

Can you tell us more about your individual practices ?

Stuart Isett (SI) I studied to be a historian before becoming a photographer, specializing in Southeast Asian history; while I studied history I was more interested in seeing how historical forces shape people’s present. That’s what drew me to the Cambodian refugee community in the US as I found simply reading about the history of the country never worked for me, I needed to see how those forces shaped individuals today. 

 Silong Chhun (SC) I enjoy storytelling through digital media; videography, photography, audio production, and graphic design. 

Pete Pin (PP) I am a fine art documentary photographer exploring themes of memory, migration, and inter-generational trauma among the Cambodian American community across the United States and among my own family in the U.S. and Cambodia. 

What is significance of the images in this series ?   what have they meant to you all and how have you engaged with it historically ?

(SI) I really enjoyed editing this work after 30 years, especially with Pete and Silong, two younger Cambodian Americans who remember this period. We often discussed how they would have been the younger kids on the back of the room in many of my images. I was focusing on their older siblings and relatives, who struggled more to adapt to life in the US. Seeing what elements in the images Pete and Silong picked up on was wonderful - from the fashions, to the layout of homes, it seemed like "comfort food" for them. That’s ultimately why I do my work, for people to make a connections like this.  I know these images so well after 30 years of looking at them, I know every inch of every frame, so sometimes it’s hard to step back and see anything new. Making this book helped me see new meanings and interpretations were possible.

(SC) Youk Chhang from the Documentary Center of Cambodia says, "a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its history." 

Stuart's photos gives us an intimate look at the everyday day life of what most Cambodians experienced in the 80s & 90s. I believe it speaks to Youk Chhang's quote of accurately depicting the daily struggles and joy of a community trying to adapt to their new home.

 (PP) Stuart's images represent the only long-form documentation of the Cambodian American refugee experience in the 1990's. As a historical document, they show in detail the struggles and resilience of the Cambodian American community following the Killing Fields, an important and often overlooked chapter in the complicated history of refugee resettlement in America. As photographs, they show an intimacy that few non-Cambodians have seen.

Why was it important to give this work a new audience, what was it you felt you brought the collaboration ?

 (SI) For me, it’s important to give a view of a brief moment in time when all these historical forces came together and how and entire corner of apartments in Chicago suddenly became a new Cambodian home - a process you can trace back 40 years to the beginning of US involvement in post colonial Indochina. In the 1920s my grandparents lived in Lakeview, the neighborhood just south of Uptown where these images were taken, and I loved showing my grandmother the work and hearing stories from 70 years earlier. To see all these connections between my family’s life, and now the lives of Cambodian refugees attending the same high school my grandfather attended 70 years before, was fascinating. These connections we all have, but rarely see or acknowledge.

It’s so easy to look at the present and think that’s the way the world has always been. My photos hopefully show that’s not true and show a continuum of human experiences. The block where these images were taken has now been thoroughly gentrified, more historical forces pushing people around, often going unseen. I would love to hang these images on those corners today, like ghosts from the past for people today to see and acknowledge.

(SC) Reintroducing Stuart's work to a new audience is important because it bridges the generational gap to a history that younger Cambodians may overlook. As we progress as a community, the Khmer Rouge dominates the narrative, and I believe these photos provide a glimpse of an important part of our history. 

(PP) When I first started photographing, Stuart's images were literally the only images I was able to find about the diaspora in America. One of the struggles I've had in my own life and practice is how to show the difficulty of this period visually without falling into tropes of gangs and violence. The violence was real and it's important to recognize and acknowledge. It would have been easy for Stuart to make a body of work about Cambodian gangs, but his work is not about that at all. It's about family. One's immediate family, and one's chosen family. These bonds are self-evident in his images. I am so glad that we were able to revisit this work and refocus the edit on what Stuart had always intended to show. I feel that my contribution was to find these strands and emphasize them in the edit. 

What creative work is being made around Cambodia now which you feel is really significant?

(SI) All the new, younger generation of Cambodian American photographers (as well as writers, filmmakers etc) who have appeared in the past decade. When I worked on this project 30 years ago most young Cambodians were simply struggling to survive and adapt to life in the US after the Khmer Rouge era. I only met one young Cambodian woman at my college studying photography but she came from a pretty well-off family that fled Cambodia in 1975 before the genocide. Today there’s a whole new generation exploring their identity and history. When I met Pete Pin about a decade ago I was so excited to see a young Cambodian, who had struggled in his early years, stepping out, studying photography and producing interesting work. And Silong Chhun also amazes me with his blend of activism, commerce and community pride.

(SC) All creative work surrounding Cambodia and the diaspora is significant because it is an undeniable testament to the failure of the Khmer Rouge. I feel like we're living in the second wave of the golden age of Khmer Arts, with the resurgence of Khmer music, film, dance, and all of the other areas of arts and culture that we see thriving in Cambodia and all over the world. 

(PP) I am most interested in the contemporary visual arts in Cambodia. Contemporary art in Cambodia is relatively new, and there is a youthful energy to it that's exhilarating, a "do it because you can, and do it because you must" mentality to much of the work being produced now. Much of this contemporary work is inherently political, but not overtly so given the constraints in Cambodia. I am a huge fan of Sa Sa Art Projects and the work they are doing with young Cambodian artists.