Vandy Rattana’s (b. 1980 in Phnom Penh; lives in Taipei) Bomb Ponds series portrays how the Cambodian landscape was transformed by 2,756,941 tons of bombs dropped by the US military from October 4, 1965, to August 15, 1973 (by comparison, the Allies dropped just over two million tons of ordnance during all of World War II). The ponds became toxic craters that poisoned people and livestock and contaminated the ecosystem before the paddy fields were able to regenerate. The complete series comprises nine photographs and a video work.
