In the Loupe | The Photography of Craig Kohlruss

Pha Mouvangsou’s life was a tough one from the get-go. As an infant, his mother (photographed with him and two of his sons here) smuggled him and any other surviving family members to Thailand from Laos where his family was being hunted down by the Viet Cong. HIs father, who was fighting with the Americans had already escaped. In a Thailand refugee camp for four years, young Pha was fed mice to keep his protein up. Eventually the family was re-located in Fresno where Pha lived in poverty and soon got mixed up in gangs. After becoming a father, it was his own son, Sebastian, who got his life turned around. Pha enrolled at DeVry University and earned both bachelors and Masters degrees. Today he works as a branch manager at Consolidated Electrical Distributors and also teaches at the Institute of Technology, influencing young adults who were very much like him. He supports a family of four boys, his wife, mother and other family members. I photographed Mouvangsou for Link Magazine, a publication from the Career College Association which will publish the story soon. Can’t wait to get a copy of that. What a wonderful story.