February 1974
The Bombing of Phnom Penh
“Why do you want to go to the front, Miss?” my Cambodia driver, Mr. Lî, asked. “It’s Sunday. The war is off on Sundays .”
“Take me anyway,” I told him.
I want to see Phnom Pen again, the monks in saffron robes walking along the Mekong under their parasols, the glazed pagoda roofs, the central market smelling of durian, and the stone dragons surrounded by sandbags, watching over National Museum…
We head toward Route 13, where I got my start in this business, with a photo of a child soldier, laughing, swimming in a rice field next to an enormous ox. The image was on the front page of the New York Times with the headline, “Saigon Enters the Year of the Ox.” Today, everything is different.
Christine Spengler
Read the full text of this article on the French version of the Journal.
40 ans de photojournalisme – Génération Sipa
Michel Setboun and Sylvie Dauvillier
Layout: Grégory Bricout
© 2012, Éditions de La Martinière
239 pages – 39 euros
