PHOTOS: Laundry is a chore but there's a beauty and serenity in the way it hangs out

"In early February, Macy Castaneda Lee took a motorbike ride along the Siem Reap River out to the large green swaths of rice and lotus fields that pepper the outskirts of the Cambodian city. Miles from the city center, they stumbled across a booming industry that filled the streets, homes and riverside. "There was laundry everywhere," remembers Castaneda Lee, a Filipino photographer who was in Siem Reap for the Angkor Photo Festival and Workshop. "Visually, it was very striking.""

"Camera in hand, Castaneda Lee started documenting the varied loads of laundry, and in the process learned what laundry means to the community: "Laundry is a symbol for Cambodian and Khmer people of their economic and health standards." Invisible workers Castaneda Lee photographed locals in hopes of appreciating the invisible workers on the other side of Cambodian tourism, who spend hours each day doing the laundry of tourists."

"Roughly halfway between the Siem Reap city center and Tonle Sap lake, Castaneda Lee visited two Khmer brothers, Sothea and Bong Chea, in their home of scrap fabric and found objects. Laundry offers a two-fold protection for them, says Castaneda Lee: the hanging laundry acts as a makeshift wall to keep out bugs at night and gives them a little extra financial support when they wash the neighbors' clothes for a small fee."

A motorbike route along the Siem Reap River reaches rice and lotus fields on the city outskirts where a thriving laundry industry fills streets, homes, and riverside areas. Laundry provides vital small fees to households that wash neighbors' and tourists' clothes and acts as a visible marker of economic and health standards. Hanging laundry doubles as makeshift walls that protect sleeping spaces from insects. Children commonly assist with scrubbing clothes in basins, and many families combine laundry work with other small businesses such as salons. The work is time-consuming and underlines the often invisible labor sustaining local livelihoods and tourism needs.

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