This photograph shows maps and models on display at the Sangkum Reastr Niyum exhibition in Sihanoukville. The exhibition is displayed on a wooden platform in a room structured by half open bamboo walls. There are two maps of Cambodia on the right-hand side. The first map, with arrows from two directions pointing to Saigon, reads: “Avant 1955 [date of the construction of Sihanoukville] l’axe économique du Cambodge était dirigé vers Saigon” [Before 1955, the economic axis of Cambodia was oriented to Saigon]. The second map, with thicker arrows pointing from different directions to Sihanoukville reads: “Désormais, l’économie du Cambodge a sa porte de sortie sur la mer” [Now, Cambodia’s economy has its own sea access]. The title of the map is: “Le grand avenir de Sihanoukville” [The great future of Sihanoukville].

The photograph is part of the collection that was donated to the National Archives of Cambodia from the Library of the Royal University of Fine Arts by Darryl Collins and Helen Grant Ross in 2003. The collection was used by Collins and Ross for their research into urbanisation. The images were probably originally used to mount the Sangkum Reastr Niyum Permanent Exhibition at the Exhibition Hall, Bassac area, Phnom Penh.