He worked as an interpreter and assistant for Sydney Schanburg of the New York Times, who covered the Vietnam War as it continued on in neighboring Cambodia before ending in 1975. Schanburg helped Dith's family escape the country but was forced to leave Dith behind as Phenom Pehn, the Cambodian capital, fell.
Dith survived four years in the brutality that swept the country under the Khmer Rouge, however his three brothers were killed.
A Cambodian boy stands in front of a platform covered with human skulls at a Killing Field discovered in Trapeang Sva Village, Kandal province, 15 miles south of Phnom Penh on July 10, 1995. The mass grave contained the remains of about 2,000 victims of the Khmer Rouge, who slaughtered Cambodians during their brutal reign from 1975-1978.
When Dith finally was able to escape the country in 1979, he was hired as a trainee in the photo department at the New York Times. "The veteran staffers 'took him under their wing and taught him how to survive on the streets of New York as a photographer, how to see things,' said Times photographer Marilynn Yee," in an Associated Press story.
New York Times photographer Dith Pran photographs on assignment at an immigrant rights rally on September 4, 2006 in Newark, New Jersey.
To read more about the background of Dith Pran and his life in and out of Cambodia, go to the story, 'Killing Fields' Survivor Dith Pran Dies.
