Episode 011: A Conversation with Khem Chen

We Belong Everywhere with Reggie Black

Outside of Casa Lapin on the busy street of Sukhumvit 26, Khem Chen joins Reggie Black to share her stories about travel, living in another country, the contrasts between Singapore and Bangkok, and finding her voice as a photographer. Khem explores introspective topics about interracial issues amongst Southeast Asia by addressing the notions that exist throughout Chinese, Malay, Indonesian, and Thai cultures particularly referencing how they all interact with each other. Khem articulates the importance of all ethnicities respecting each others social structure, what “darker skin” means in Asians cultures, and what can be done to express more empathy.

Khem also tells a beautiful story about how work related travels to dangerous and remote locations crafted her voice as a photographer. She also credits her travels to Switzerland, the power of the internet, and Flipboard as instrumental tools that helped her evolve as a photographer. Khem continues to explain her artist development process by sharing the importance of exploring new cities that she’s never been to before in order to capture new environments. With every capture, Khem is trying to learn something from the visual exchange in that particular moment as well as collect that memory to then go learn more about that experience. Her upcoming projects will explore gender bias and individuality.

There are tons of powerful perspectives in this conversation but this quote from Khem in particular really challenges the human condition and draws a connection with her art:

“For me, it’s not just a photo, I would like people to see, start thinking and start recognizing something in our society. I’m interested in ignorance. How can people see things everyday and not notice that they are there and just pass by?”