Refugee Camps on the Thai-Cambodian Border in 1980

Colin Grafton travelled overland to Asia in 1969. He taught English and took photographs in Laos (1970–1972) and Cambodia (1972–1975). He taught Japanese overseas volunteers (JOCV/JICA) in Japan until 1980, then returned to Thailand as a JVC/WFP volunteer in the Cambodian refugee camps. He held his first photo exhibition on Cambodia in the UK in 1981. Back in Japan, he was English language adviser for ACCU (Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO) in Tokyo, and produced several photo exhibitions on Laos and Cambodia. He returned to Cambodia on a visit in 1992, became a frequent visitor, and settled there in 2014. Since then he has worked on exhibitions and projects at Bophana Center, Meta House, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, and the Institut Français, including “Remembering Cambodian Border Camps—40 Years Later” in collaboration with Y-Dang Troeung. From 2021–2022, he and his wife Keiko Kitamura produced the book Dancers. To see more about his photographs in this issue, visit https://colingrafton.wixsite.com/phnompenh1973/refugee-camps.