When international tourism was abruptly halted in early 2020, few people anticipated the severity and duration of the grim period that would follow in a city almost entirely devoted to hosting and catering to millions of visitors from around the globe. 

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The bustling and vibrant streets of Siem Reap, Cambodia (the gateway city to the world heritage site Angkor Wat), suddenly went silent. Reluctant but with few feasible and rational options, most business owners closed their doors and the majority of the local population became unemployed - thrusting an already vulnerable society even deeper into poverty and despair.

At its core, Siem Reap consists of a small grid marked by its famed Old Market, tuktuk drivers and French colonial buildings all connected by a tight network of main and little back alleys formerly lined with tropical fruit and trinket vendors, artists and artisans, boutiques, exotic barkeepers and creative restauranteurs, and foot-feasting fish swimming around in tanks at the entrances of $8/h massage parlours. It was a vibrant and fascinating microcosm of its own - that became eerily dark not long after the outbreak of the global COVID-19 scenario.    

The people and charming little alleys that once inspired and fed Padlewska's blissful imagination, suddenly morphed into what resembled a grim scene reminiscent of a ghost town and a late 1970s apocalyptic film set that terrified her in her youth.

Since the grinding halt of tourism to Siem Reap in March 2020, and its subsequent impact on her much admired and beloved community, Padlewska roamed the core's deserted and dusty alleys alone with her camera as she tried to make sense of the devastating reality unfolding within her host community, and around the world.