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On January Sunday 18, 2009, two days before the historical inauguration of President Elect Obama, the Cambodian American artists (adults and students) of the temple of Silver Spring, MD, performed on the stage of the National Museum of the American Indian, one of the prestigious Museums of the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall of Washington DC, a few hundred feet distanced from the United States Capitol.
It was a while I had not met the Cambodian artists of the DC area, some of them I had already photographed in 2008 at the temple of Silver Spring, MD, during Khmer New Year. Their performance at the Museum of the American Indian was part of a folkloric festival, one of the many festivities and events organized in the week before the inauguration of Barack Obama. Two days after these pictures were shot, America ended eight years of Bush administration and started a new era with the first ever African American president of its history…
