S-21 Prisoner #186

Several years ago I was browsing through a photographic history of the 20th century in the local library, and stumbled upon a set of photographs from the Khmer Rouge Security Prison 21 (S-21) prison. One image in particular seemed to just reach out from the pages and shook me to the core - the image shown below of a young unidentified boy, with nothing but the number 186 hanging around his neck.

The prisoners at S-21 were routinely beaten and tortured into confession of insurrection against Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge. Upon confession they were led to an extermination center where they were killed by being battered with iron bars, pickaxes, machetes and many other makeshift weapons. According to one source, roughly 17,000 people were imprisoned there, and there are only twelve known survivors.



I remember staring at this photograph for a long time, trying to fathom the depth of human brutality that must have spurred those evil men to kill such a young person. Although I had already spent two years living in a third world country by the time I saw this photograph, I lost what vestiges of innocence I still had. I developed a great loathing for socialism and communism that day, as well as any form of government or social order that could so easily discard human life without recognizing its inherent beauty.

Noah Kalina - Picture a Day for Six Years

I know Noah Kalina has been around for a while, but I just stumbled across him on YouTube the other day. I must admit that many years ago as a teenager, I wondered what it would be like to take a picture of yourself every day and then compare them to see the differences. Well turns out several people on the internet have done it. Noah wasn't the first, but he compiled a video available on YouTube that is much more moving than the rest:

His video strings his daily self-photographs over the period of six years and presents them in the space of 5ish minutes. His video is haunting and moving to the core. I found myself at first watching his his hair grow and suddenly shorten, also watching for stubble or a beard (which never quite materialized) - but finally, I found myself looking at his eyes. I kept wondering what events he had recorded in his life between each frame of the video. How had his personality changed? How had his knowledge increased? Had anything disturbing happened to him? And then of course these questions turned inward - what events had I witnessed over the course of the last six years? (Noah and I are roughly the same age).

Noah vows to continue his daily pics until the day he dies. He has reminded me to take advantage of each day of my life and live it to the fullest. He has also reminded me that we are all going through the same experience and all trying to make sense of it.

Noah's wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Kalina

Noah's video: