We are writer Karen J. Coates and photographer Jerry Redfern.

We didn’t always like each other, but we’ve always respected each other’s work. Love came later, long after we’d joined our photos and words. In 1997 we formed the ultimate partnership: We married.

We met at The University of Montana while working at the student paper. We could tolerate each other then. Our first journalism jobs took us to the same small daily newspaper on Wyoming’s windswept plains. We collaborated on stories ranging from gun violence and a youth boot camp, to rock climbers and Native Americans at Devils Tower National Monument. We decided we might actually like each other. When Karen left to pursue graduate studies in Oregon, Jerry landed a photojournalism job at The News-Review in nearby Roseburg.

In 1996, Karen traveled to Vietnam through a collaborative program with Vietnam National University and the University of Oregon. She worked with Women of Vietnam magazine, taught at the Vietnam Women’s Museum and studied at VNU.

Distance made the heart grow cranky, so we married before moving to Cambodia in 1998. Karen worked as an editor at The Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh, and Jerry shot freelance for several news organizations.

Since then we have collaborated on too many stories to count — pretty much anything and everything in Cambodia, the tsunami in Phuket and Khao Lak, human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka, Hmong loggers in Vietnam, unexploded U.S. bombs in Laos that continue to kill villagers today. In each case, we formed and executed ideas together, building on our abilities as professional partners. We have covered the colloquial lives often omitted from mainstream journalism. Our biggest professional collaboration thus far is the book Cambodia Now: Life in the Wake of War (McFarland & Co., 2005), a seven-year effort to document the lasting social, psychological and environmental effects of war and genocide.

We lean on each other’s work. Jerry’s photos evoke thoughts, feelings and memories while Karen is writing. Her stories complement the life he captures in pictures. As in a marriage of people, our words and photos maintain their integrity and individuality. But they shine most brilliantly when together.

When terrorists struck the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, we made plans. The following year, we embarked on a long-term project to document the lives of people living under oppression and after war. We feel, and have always felt, there is room for Americans to learn more about the world. An 8-month journey led us through Cambodia, northern Thailand, Indonesia, East Timor and Myanmar. We’ve been writing, photographing and traveling ever since, with a home base in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Our best work stems from the times we patiently watch, listen and note the lives around us. Ordinary life lends something extraordinary to those who take time to notice. We’ve devoted much of that time to Asia. As with each other, we haven’t always liked everything about Asia. But it kept our attention, and we went back. It is now a large part of who we are — as is our work.

Our work is more than a job. It’s a life we’ve created together.