Kannetha Brown

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange initiative, a highly competitive fellowship designed to build lasting connections through research, art, and cultural diplomacy. Selection is a rigorous process based on academic and professional merit, placing grantees into a historic network that includes dozens of Nobel Laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners. By supporting my work as a Creative & Performing Arts Grantee, you are backing a mission vetted at the highest national level to foster deep community engagement and cross-cultural storytelling.

This project functions as a physical and historical "homecoming" centered in the district of Moung Ruessei and the wider Battambang province. Following the survival narrative documented in my mother’s memoir, I am conducting field research to locate and document unmarked family burial sites and significant historical landscapes. This work addresses the "silent presence" of the Khmer Rouge era, using photography to bridge the gap between the Cambodian diaspora and the physical sites of resilience and loss.

• Key Partner: Cambodian Centre for Documentary Photography (CCDP)

• Research Focus: Site-specific mapping, oral history integration, and the reclamation of forbidden family archives.

The core of this work is a homecoming for a small collection of surviving family photographs, rare fragments that escaped destruction during the Khmer Rouge era. As described in her memoir, my mother discovered these in her childhood home after the war, including a surveillance photograph of her late sister, Avie; it is the only image of her that exists. My research is a mission to return these images to the landscape where they began, using two specific, tactile processes:

• The Spirit Flags: I re-photograph these archival family portraits and print them onto translucent fabric to create "Spirit Flags." I then install these flags at the exact coordinates in Moung Ruessei and Battambang where my family lived or is buried. These flags are designed to physically interact with the environment, moving with the wind and breathing alongside the land, transforming a static surveillance image into a living memorial.

• Experimental Anthotypes: To further weave my family back into the soil, I utilize the "Anthotype" process, a 19th-century photographic method that uses plant extracts instead of silver or ink. I create a "paint" from the local flora of Battambang (leaves, flowers, or roots) and use it to coat paper. When exposed to the Cambodian sun, the sunlight "prints" my family’s archival portraits into the botanical emulsion. The result is a colorful, organic image literally grown from the soil and water where my ancestors remain.

The Fulbright mission extends beyond image-making into a deep-immersion cultural exchange. I will be collaborating with local experts and mentors at the Cambodian Center for Documentary Photography  to facilitate workshops and share my large-format experience with the next generation of Cambodian photographers. The research will culminate in a series of solo exhibitions designed to foster cross-cultural reflection between local residents and the Cambodian-American community.

• Proposed Exhibition Venues in Cambodia: Thnaal Art Farm (Battambang), Studio Images (Phnom Penh), and Bosspha’s House(Battambang).

• Confirmed Venues in USA so far: AS220 (Providence)

While the Fulbright U.S. Student Program generously provides a monthly stipend for my travel and living expenses, it does not cover the significant production costs required to execute a large-scale, lens-based research project.

Direct contributions to the Fieldwork Fund support:

• The Spirit Flags: Funding the specialized translucent fabrics, archival inks, and installation hardware needed to create the flags.

• Botanical Anthotype Production: Procuring the organic materials, specialized chemistry, and high-quality watercolor papers required to turn local Cambodian flora into light-sensitive emulsions for my family’s portraits.

• Analog Documentation: The purchase and processing of 4x5 large-format film. These sheets are essential for capturing the depth and texture of the landscape at an exhibition-grade scale (over 180° of detail compared to digital).

• Field Logistics & Research: Travel to remote districts and the hiring of local guides to assist in the intensive process of mapping unmarked gravesites and navigating regional archives.

• The Return to the Soil: Funding the physical production of prints and digital negatives intended to be returned to family members and resting places as a permanent gift to the community.