Tuesday, April 01, 2008

One of the Greats


Talented photojournalist Dith Pran succumbed to pancreatic cancer at 65 on Sunday. His story of survival was portrayed in the film, The Killing Fields, a vivid re-telling of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian genocide. He risked his life so that the world could see the truth. Elizabeth Becker writes movingly in the Washington Post about her encounter with The Interpreter of Memories from the Killing Fields.

I had the chance to meet him a few years ago at an AAJA conference in Minneapolis and he was just as humble and down-to-earth as could be. I was walking around the photo auction benefit and he introduced himself to me as "Dith" and "a photographer." When I saw his work, I put two and two together and figured out who he was.

A great loss.

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