Jake Verzosa's photography series about the indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia is a sociological project that aims to evaluate our recognition of images of these marginalised people and their surroundings. He is a true believer. He believes in people who pause their lives and stare back at him, and in photography's capacity to represent their social-cultural difference.

The plurality and heterogeneity of languages and cultures in Southeast Asia are immense, even though it is a region usually defined as a single geopolitical entity. More that 240 languages are spoken by approximately 300 ethnic groups of 242 million; out of 14 million Cambodians, there are 36 recognized ethnic and linguistic minorities. Diversity is a natural character of Southeast Asia, therefore the representational function of photography is always welcome and will always be a disclosure of the unseen and a reminder of their existence. The inconsistency of Verzosa's diptychs, however, is a statement that he does not pursue ethnic registration nor documentation of identity. He attempts to grasp some sense of similarity between those who are otherwise geographically set apart.

- Alexander Supartono