CORRECTION-VIETNAM-WAR/PHOTOGRAPHERS Hanoi photo exhibition displays pictures of Vietnam war

Record ID: 159308

  • Title: CORRECTION-VIETNAM-WAR/PHOTOGRAPHERS Hanoi photo exhibition displays pictures of Vietnam war
  • Date: 16th April 2015
  • Summary: MORE OF THE PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING THANG AND OTHER SOLDIERS DURING BATTLE
  • Embargoed: 1st May 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Vietnam
  • Country: Vietnam
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAE9O3O35NXPTR1ZEDB5UNFZGQ3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The exhibition "War Reporters", held in Hanoi ahead of the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war, showcased more than 40 photos taken by four Vietnamese photographers whose work is not well known in the West.
    Seasoned photographer Patrick Chauvel, who has covered over 20 conflicts around the world, came up with the idea of exhibiting the work of local photographers, Doan Cong Tinh, Chu Chi Thanh, Mai Nam and Hua Kiem.
    Chauvel arrived in Vietnam when he was 18 and began covering the war. He said he would sit in the comfort of a hotel lobby in Saigon with his western colleagues and wonder about the fate of the photographers on the other side.
    "We would see all the bombing, napalm and all that and we would think - all the American, English, French photographers - how can anybody survive this? And if there is any photographers they must all be dead. And we would go back to Saigon and we would drink and make a toast to the North boys," Chauvel said, referring to those in the North being heavily bombed by U.S. forces.
    For Chauvel, covering the Vietnam war was a paid job and a danger he accepted for working as a journalist. For then-North Vietnamese photographer, Doan Cong Tinh, it was a call of duty. Like some other North Vietnamese photographers, Tinh said he considered himself a soldier and the camera his weapon.
    Like many other local photographs, Tinh worked for the government, and said that taking photographs for the purpose of anti-American propaganda was their way of fighting the war alongside other soldiers, and their way of contributing to the nation's cause.
    Tinh felt that recognising and showcasing the differences between Western and Vietnamese coverage of war creates a finished picture of the conflict.
    "They (Western photographers) depicted the sorrow and the brutality of the war. It was their way to condemn the war. Our side reported the sacrifice, the bravery, the optimism and our determination to gain freedom and independence. That is also an unbiased truth. The two sides, when combined, made a thorough and complete history in pictures," he said.
    Born in 1943 in the North, Tinh first published a photo in 1962 when he was just 19. The photo was taken with a borrowed Russian camera.
    He was then recruited by the People 's Army Newspaper and worked for them until the end of the war.
    Tinh said that he usually had to wait until nightfall to develop his films in the jungle without a darkroom. He would dig three holes in the ground to develop the films before giving them to different people who were returning to Hanoi. This method increased the chances of his photographs getting to their final destination as couriers ran the risk of getting killed.
    Tinh lost almost half of his work in transit.
    At the exhibition, Tinh met and embraced Do Duc Thang, a North Vietnamese soldier whom he photographed 45 years ago. The photo, which was on display in the exhibition, shows Thang in the midst of battle with fellow North Vietnamese soldiers in Quang Tri province, near the demilitarised zone.
    Tinh said that more than 300 North Vietnamese photographers lost their lives while covering the Vietnam war, yet to the Western world the war has become known through the works of correspondents such as Larry Burrows, Don McCullin, Tim Page, Nick Ut and Chauvel himself. Chauvel has sought to change this.
    "There is a saying that history is told by the guys who win wars. This was not true on this occasion. The story of Vietnam war was told by the American, French and English photographers. But we didn't win. And the Vietnamese who won the war had never told their stories to the free world," he said.
    Vietnam marks the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon on April 30, the event that ended a war that lasted over 30 years, killing up to four million Vietnamese, the Vietnamese government said, and more than 58,000 U.S troops, the U.S. Defense Ministry has said.
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