Angkor

Angkor, the ancient seat of the god-kings of Cambodia, is the great treasury of Khmer artistic culture, whose evocative, enigmatic sculptures are known throughout the world. Marc Riboud, the French photographer, visited the site several times, first in the late 1960s and most recently in November 1990, capturing its monuments and inhabitants before and after the years of the Khmer Rouge and the Killing Fields. Riboud shows not only the toppled edifices, the lichened Buddhas and the roofless galleries of Angkor's two most famous sites of Angkor Wat and the Bayon, but also the invasive power of the surrounding jungle. The still undefiled relief carvings of graceful dancers and smiling "devatas" are juxtaposed with French and Japanese graffiti, and the friezes depicting the battles of the Khmer kings with modern mementoes of conflict. But Angkor has become host to the revival of life and faith in Cambodia: Riboud watched and recorded in 1990 as monks and pilgrims converged on this one-time capital for a three-day festival in honour of a statue of the Buddha, rekindling a tradition almost extinguished by years of persecution.
Riboud's images are complemented by his own descriptive essay, along with texts on Angkor's recent history and its Buddhist foundations.