Vietnam War through foreign journalists’ eyes

About 50 photos on the war in Vietnam taken by the late
photo-journalist Henri Huet and his colleagues are on display at an
exhibition that is opening in France from Feb.9 till April.10.

The event is being held to mark the 40 th ‑ death anniversary of the
well-known photographer, who lost his life when the military helicopter
he was riding in was shot down over Laos .

The
collection captures different aspects in the war from the pain, fatigue,
frustration and grittiness to a gamut of emotions.

Highlight of the display is a photo named Thomas Cole, which was used as
a cover of LIFE magazine, depicting a young medic of the First Cavalry
division, tending other soldiers despite his own injuries.

Sharon, a visitor, said she felt that she was witnessing what happened
dozens of years ago when viewing the photos and was impressed with
images of American soldiers’ daily life as well as what Vietnamese
people had to suffer from.

Henri Huet, who was a
half-French and half-Vietnamese, worked for the United Press
International (UPI) and then transferred to the Associated Press (AP)
during his 20-year career./.

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Exhibition focuses on ever-changing Indochina

A photo exhibition by French photographer Sebastien Laval, entitled
Communities Through Time, has opened at L'Espace, the French cultural
centre in Hanoi.

The black-and-white photos portray the life and
culture of people in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, as well as
Cambodia's Angkor Wat and Luang Prabang in Laos. Laval's treatment of
floating houses, flickering cooking fires, the innocent smiles of kids,
the austere expression on the face of an ethnic man, or a tobacco pipe
between a woman's lips, captures the enigma that endures in this region.

The
photos include portraits and depict both traditional customs and
changes in people's lives. Images in opposition, such as traditional
clothes and satellite dishes, old roofs and asphalt roads, reflect the
changes in the lives of the ethnic people. The images have no titles,
allowing the viewer to freely think, feel and discover the characters,
to "try to meet them, talk to them, look at them and understand them,"
Laval said.

"The way I take photos is not to tell people that I am taking photos," Laval said. "I make no arrangement for the images."

One
morning, Laval said he came to a Lao village and met a young girl
carrying her brother in front of her house. By the afternoon, she had
become acquainted with Laval, who was able to capture a photo of her
sitting on sand with a radiant smile.

"If I hadn't come closer to
her, I wouldn't have had that smile," he said. "I realised that people
still speak and have a mutual understanding even if they don't use the
same language."

Born in 1973, Laval discovered photography when
he was given a camera by his father. He moved to Paris to work as an
assistant for a photo studio in 1992 and subsequently began working as a
professional in Poitiers.

Laval visited Vietnam for the first
time in 1995 and has accumulated thousands of images of people in about
20 Vietnamese ethnic groups, which he intends to publish in a book.

The current exhibition runs through February 11 at L'Espace, 24 Trang Tien Street, in Hanoi. /.

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Vietnamese photographer wins int’l award

Tran Viet Van, a reporter of the Lao Dong (Labour) daily newspaper, has
won seven Honorable Mention Awards at the International Photography
Awards by the Lucie Foundation in the US.

The contest drew 15,000 entries by thousands of photographers from 103 countries worldwide.

Van’s awarded works include five photo sets in the portrait, photo
story, art and people categories. They are named Tuong tran thoi binh
(General in peacetime), Vi tuong tran lich lam (Gentle General), The
gioi ao va thuc (Virtual and real world) (two sets) and Bi an Tay Nguyen
(Mystery of Central Highlands).

In April, the
reporter took the public voting title for his photo named Sand Story 4
in the environment category at the second International Online Digital
Photo Competition held in Cyprus.

Early this year,
he also won the fourth prize for a photo entitled Mua Thu Hoach (Harvest
Season) at the Worldwide Photography Gala Awards and a Merit Award for
the photo Mua Xuan Dang Toi (Here Comes the Spring).

Last year, Van took home 14 photography prizes at home and abroad./.

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