Loss, Recuperation, and Identity


Basset/Monument at Angkor, Cambodia, with French expedition members
 
A series of rare amateur photographs records the splendid temples and monuments at the Khmer capital of Angkor, which flourished between the ninth and fourteenth centuries A.D. The sculptor Urbain Basset accompanied a French expedition sent to document the architecture and make casts of the elaborate relief sculptures. Basset's photographs testify to the state of the monuments before extensive excavation and restoration projects were undertaken, and before the destruction and looting that have occurred during subsequent periods of political turbulence.