As a westerner, my first visit to Stung Mean Chay, the largest garbage dump in Cambodia, was nothing less than a complete shock. Living in Phnom Penh had given me an idea of the harsh realities of urban poverty in a developing nation, but it was nothing compared to the living conditions in the dump; merely twenty minutes outside the capital city's center.
In a place so filled with poverty, disease, and crime it's easy to latch on to the few beautiful images that eventually emerge, but the harsh realities of life are impossible to avoid.
