Please Help Vote for Reasmeiy Angkor's Photo Submission to "The Focus Project" Competition

Life is free under the Tamarind tree (Submission photo by Rasmeiy Angkor)

Dear KI-Media Readers,

Aditi Reasmeiy Champa Heng, aka Reasmeiy Angkor, a Cambodian-American photographer, is submitting her photos to The Focus Project Competition where the best images could have a chance to win $75,000 in awards. We are urging our readers to help vote for Reasmeiy photos.

Click here to vote for Reasmeiy

Thank you!

KI-Media team
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About Reasmeiy Angkor:

Reasmeiy Angkor

Baldwin, NY

My name is Aditi Reasmeiy Champa Heng, but, I am known as Reasmeiy Angkor, which means “Light of Angkor.” I am a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime. These eyes of mine have seen the beauty and darkness of life more than anyone should ever see in a lifetime. Unlike many Khmer Rouge survivors, I choose to roar and tell my stories instead of keeping the painful memories locked deep down inside, so deep that it consumes the body, mind, and spirit. Just surviving alone isn’t enough. We must live and enjoy each breath with love, compassion, and empathy not only for ourselves and our own family, but also for the betterment of the world. I may be a survivor of an atrocious holocaust, but, I am also a winner because I choose to survive myself and tell my story through the gift of writing and photography. I am eternally inspired by my parents whom I have shared many memories of running from bombs, gunshots, landmines, starvation, and yet still somehow managed to always have our pictures taken in the landmine garden of death along the Cambodian/Thailand borders. I came to America at the age of 11 as an unaccompanied minor from Camp Site II refugee camp in Thailand. Ever since I could afford my first camera, I never stopped capturing life through the lens. I have lost many photos over the years because I moved from one foster home to the next, homeless during college and after graduation, and sleeping on park benches, subway trains, and friends' couches---and still I rise to survive another day to tell my story to the world. I do not have the opportunity to see my family very often for the past 22 years, however, looking at their photographs have saved me from depression and the pain of missing them all of these years. Now that I am a mother of two amazing sons, I continue to photograph myself and our time together to tell our stories so that if life decides to bestow upon them a similar journey of separation then they will always have photo journals to cherish and pass down to their children. I have always wondered what life was like for my parents and our ancestors that came before them, wishing to see photographs or painting of their respective journeys through the gift of life. Unfortunately, I do not have many, which is why I choose to capture my own journey to give my children and my future descendants a new story. Photography has soothed my soul and saved my life for many years. It is absolutely my pleasure to share my passion and work with the world.