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Vietnam War photos in high
demand
By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
HO CHI MINH CITY - Since British war
photographer Tim Page published a book of photos by
photojournalists on both sides of the Vietnam War four
years ago, international acclaim and interest in the
work of Vietnam's war photographers have been growing -
more than three decades after the war ended.
While the mileage brought by Page's Requiem:
The Vietnam Collection has also prompted foreign
photographers who had covered the Vietnam War to make a
beeline for similar projects, it is the war photography
by Vietnamese photographers that is now being discovered
and appreciated by the world. Many of their photographs
are now in demand for exhibitions in museums and
publications overseas.
Page's Requiem: The
Vietnam Collection has had a lot to with this trend,
observers say. Requiem, proceeds from which went
to the Indochina Media Memorial Foundation that Page
founded and which trains journalists in the region, was
actually just the first of these books.
Since
1999, Page has published Another Vietnam and
Out of the Shadows: Thirty Years of War through
Vietnamese Eyes, featuring photos by Vietnamese war
reporters. The books have become best-sellers overseas.
The books chronicle "in the line of fire" work
of men and women, some of whom were killed in action.
Requiem, with mostly black-and-white
photos, focuses on the horrors of the war. Many of the
photos, shot in the heat of battle, also highlight the
risks that the photographers took on an almost daily
basis to take pictures.
The books with the work
of Vietnam war photographers have given the families of
many Vietnamese war reporters killed in action the
opportunity to see the works of their beloved ones
acclaimed by the public.
"I am very proud of my
husband's work and pleased to see it published or
displayed," said Hoang Thi Sa, widow of Ho Ca, a
photojournalist for the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) who
fell in action in 1968.
This is no small feat,
since many wartime photos by Vietnamese journalists
remain unknown to the public. The publication of more of
their photos, taken at the front lines of the war and
showing Vietnamese views of the war situation, may bring
even more interest in them in the future.
So
far, only three books compiling the work of local war
photographers have been published in Vietnam.
There is Legends of the Ho Chi Minh
Trail, which contains photos by Trong Thanh, who
tried to capture images of determined young people to
build the artery that helped supply the front in the
south.
"I publish[ed] the book in the hope of
providing young generations with true images of the
terrifying war, as well as of all [the] people's heroic
and courageous efforts for national reunification,"
Trong Thanh said.
Trong Thanh's Legends
was followed by Moments by Doan Cong Tinh, which
also plunges readers into the horrifying belly of the
Vietnam War.
Minh Truong's On the Country's
Roads has provoked intense emotional responses from
the public, showing not only war scenes but also rare
relaxing moments on the battlefields. His photos show
young soldiers listening to music performances, while in
the background doctors operate on wounded soldiers and
volunteer girls push trucks full of ammunition uphill.
The pictures not only represent a
photojournalist's work, but also a way of life and
memories of a time of youth. "For us, the photos are our
keepsake memories of the time when we were young, full
of youthful ardor," explained Truong.
Truong
also has 20 of his photos published in Page's Another
Vietnam, together with work by his colleagues Lam
Tan Tai, Doan Cong Tinh and Dinh Quang Thanh.
Their work got into Page's book after the
Ministry of Culture and Information (MoCI) and Vietnam
Photographers' Association (VPA) helped him meet the
former war reporters and buy many of their wartime
photos at US$35-$45 each.
But many think that
there are other, better ways - apart from facilitating
contacts with overseas photographers - by which the
ministry can help local war reporters.
"MoCI,
VNA, and Vietnam Journalists' Association should
cooperate to publish photo books to pay homage to the
collection of photos taken by former war reporters in
Vietnam," said Nguyen Dang, secretary general of VPA in
Ho Chi Minh City.
This is an urgent task because
most photos and negatives taken by war reporters are now
decades old and may well be lost or damaged. "War photos
make a significant contribution to our precious war
memories but we've not yet correctly preserved them,"
Dang said.
Doan Cong Tinh, a photojournalist at
Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army) newspaper carried his
photos with him over the past 30 years as the daily
newspaper changed offices and also because he himself
was also continuously on the move.
But few
photojournalists ever kept negatives for themselves,
says artist Vu Ba, award-winning author of the book
Phuc Tan Calls for Revenge. "We don't know how
our offices keep our negatives or if they have been lost
or spoiled by time," Vu Ba said.
This also
explains why Vietnamese war photos have become so
precious and are fetching high prices.
Doan Cong
Tinh is now able to sell many of his works to foreign
publishers and to publish a book by himself because he
had made several copies of his photos over time.
But it is sad that many of the pictures are
being sold, sometimes overseas, instead of being
preserved in local collections. As time goes on, the
need for Vietnam to record history and the war through
its own eyes will become more pressing.
But
"none of the war-photo books published by Vietnamese
photographers have received state assistance yet", Minh
Truong observed. He was able to publish his own work
using the money he raised from selling 20 photos to Tim
Page.
(Inter Press Service)
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