Smor San is a community that lives in a cemetery in Phnom Penh. The inhabitants have constructed makeshift houses on top of tombs and coffins, or inhabited vacant burial chambers. Here they eat dinner, watch TV, hang clothes to dry, care for their kids, and sleep – just centimeters away from the dead. They moved into the cemetery with around 200 graves after sand dredging had led to the collapse of their houses on the riverbank.
Steff Gruber (1953) is a Swiss photographer and filmmaker. He worked as a press photographer for Keystone Press and was one of the first filmmakers to deal with the docudrama genre. Based on his interest in documentaries, Gruber began shooting photo stories in various countries that focused, in particular, on human interest subjects and humanist concerns. He produced many of his photo series over a period of several years, visiting places and people on repeated occasions. Steff Gruber is a member of the Swiss Association of Journalists and Photographers IMPRESSUM.
