Category: Art and Propaganda
Exhibit features American soldiers' Vietnam War memories, photos
Photos are like frozen memories. And many American soldiers who served in Vietnam unlocked those memories for Viet Art Center's photo contest "Memories of Vietnam," which sought those pics. Recently the center hosted a grand opening of an exhibit of 100 photos selected from the submissions and named 3 winners from the chosen 6 finalists. Among the finalists are photos of a Vietnamese soldier sharing a smile with a woman. Another photo shows a child putting a hand on a soldier and smoking a cigarette. Executive director Michelle Nguyen is greatly pleased with the quality of the photographs.
by ocregister :: 2008-05-09 :: Art and Propaganda
Unique tribute to four Vietnam War combat photographers
4 combat photographers got a museum burial as family, friends and colleagues recalled how they gave their lives to show the world "Vietnam as they saw it." A UH-1 Huey helicopter carrying the photographers was downed over a mountainside in Laos on Feb. 10, 1971. Human remains were retrieved years later along with camera parts, film, broken watches and bits of wreckage. The remains have been interred at the foot of the Newseum's glass memorial devoted to fallen journalists. A silver plaque was inscribed with the names: Larry Burrows, Henri Huet, Kent Potter, Keisaburo Shimamoto.
by ap :: 2008-04-06 :: Art and Propaganda
Vietnam War photojournalist Philip Jones Griffiths has died
Philip Jones Griffiths, a photojournalist whose photos of civilian casualties were among the defining images of the war in Vietnam, died at 72. The book that grew out of his reporting, "Vietnam, Inc.," is a classic, and its publication (1971) helped turn public opinion against the war. Its painful pictures (of a blackened burn victim, a thin woman's body splattered with blood, a South Vietnamese boy in soldier's fatigues, his head tiny beneath a huge helmet) were the kind not often shown in newspapers. And Griffiths, a rabid opponent of the war, never regarded himself a traditional war photographer.
by iht :: 2008-03-25 :: Art and Propaganda
War correspondent Kate Webb made her name covering Vietnam War
In book "War Torn" Kate Webb says that in later years when her thoughts turned back to Vietnam, it was often to Captain Truong of the South Vietnamese army's 1st Division - often depicted as the Vietnamese army's best. The captain's soldiers were, unlike the American GIs, in for the duration. His company operated at night without helicopter support. The men transported wounded out on foot. Kate was there when Captain Truong was wounded. When his number two man was hit, she helped to carry him on a stretcher back to HQ, where his arm was cut off. As Kate noted, the American papers were not much interested in the South Vietnamese army, but Kate was.
by rfa.org :: 2008-01-04 :: Art and Propaganda
Photos capture haunting moments of war
An exhibition of pictures taken during the American War opened in Ha Noi's Museum of the Vietnamese Revolution. The 110 black and white photos in the show Nhung Khoanh Khac Khong The Nao Quen (Unforgettable Moments), are a landmark in the career of Chu Chi Thanh. Over half of them have never been shown in public. Thanh divides his work into 8 parts; Tuyen Lua Khu 4 (Firing-Line in Zone Four); Ha Noi, Hai Phong 12 Ngay Dem B-52 (Ha Noi, Hai Phong's 12 Days and Nights under Bombardment of B-52s); Duong Ra Tien Tuyen (Road to the Front-line); Doi Quan Khong Mac Ao Linh (The Army Without Uniform)...
by vnagency :: 2007-12-15 :: Art and Propaganda
Horst Faas: some Vietnam war photos must not be published
Photographer Horst Faas has stood by a decision not to publish photos taken of American soldiers collecting the heads of enemy fighters during the Vietnam War. I was with an American airborne battalion. The company commander had told his men that they would get a case of beer for every head of Vietcong they found. "One guy started playing soccer with a head. I photographed it." Faas said that when he returned to Saigon, he sent the pictures to his editor with the recommendation that they were not used - and to this day they have not been published. "First of all you take the pictures, then you judge a bit later."
by pressgazette :: 2007-07-26 :: Art and Propaganda
Kate Webb, Vietnam War Correspondent, Dies at 64
Kate Webb, a correspondent during the Vietnam War who was reported to have been captured and killed in Cambodia, only to emerge from the jungle alive, died at 64. On April 7, 1971, when she was one of a handful of women reporting on the war, North Vietnamese troops in Cambodia captured her and 5 others and held them for 23 days. The Japanese man helped allay stress by teaching her the Japanese tea ceremony. On May 1, she was released, along with the others, and returned home with 2 types of malaria. An explanation of why she was freed never appeared; other journalists captured around the same time were sometimes killed.
by reuters :: 2007-05-16 :: Art and Propaganda
Requiem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina
The courage and work of war photographers like legendary Robert Capa are celebrated in "Requiem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina," an exhibit at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. The exhibit is based on a book of the same name by Horst Faas and Tim Page, two photographers who were wounded while shooting pictures during the Vietnam War. All the images in the exhibit were taken by photojournalists who were killed in Indochina, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos throughout a period that began with the French Indochina War in the 1950s and ended with the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon in 1975. 135 photographers died on both sides of the conflict.
by cnn :: 2007-04-30 :: Art and Propaganda
Vietnam-era 'Cover Boy' mourns Life
Article no longer available from the original source.
As Denny Steigmann patrolled the jungles of Vietnam in 1966, he had no idea he was capturing the hearts of Americans back at home. He was featured in a photo on the May 20, 1966, cover of Life. It was taken by a photographer embedded with the troops during an exceptionally bloody battle. The photo showed Steigmann cradling an injured soldier he had carried uphill as bullets zipped by his head. The image was chosen as photo of the year and earned Steigmann the nickname "Cover Boy" among his fellow Marines. The corps later used it to promote its slogan "We take care of our own."
by columbian :: 2007-04-11 :: Art and Propaganda
New book explores paintings and sketches by soldiers
A book featuring paintings and sketches, mostly of war, by former soldiers and artist Huynh Phuong Dong has been released in Vietnamese. Huynh Phuong Dong - Visions of War and Peace, was earlier published in English in the US. Dong is famous for his collection of over 20,000 sketches, silk, gouache, and oil paintings, as well as wood and bronze sculptures. Most of his works feature forests, the faces of soldiers and guerrillas, and battles and the hardships in a soldier's life during the wars in Vietnam 1945-1975.
by nhandan :: 2007-03-17 :: Art and Propaganda
Veteran's Photo exhibit getting new home in Berkeley
In 1971, Geoffrey Clifford flew helicopter assault missions in central Vietnam. He did not like his taste of war and was happy to leave after his 9-month tour ended. But the vision of Vietnam's poetic landscape below his helicopter and the central coastal mountain range, stayed with him. "I loved it from Day One. I got to see some of the prettiest landscapes in the world." As a photographer, he accompanied the first touring group of U.S. war veterans to return to Vietnam. Thus began a decades-long love for Vietnam, which led to a 5-year, 18-city Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit of 52 photographs.
by marinij :: 2007-03-03 :: Art and Propaganda
Vietnam War captured in photos
Article no longer available from the original source.
In a photo taken Nov. 4, 1965, Dickey Chapelle lies face down in a pool of her own blood as Navy chaplain John Monamara administers the last rites. In an evac helicopter the veteran photographer had looked at a crewman and said, "I guess it was bound to happen." Those were her last words. Between the height of the French Indochina War in the 1950s and the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon in 1975, 135 photographers were recorded missing or killed, Chapelle one of them. "Requiem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina," is on display through March 4 at the University of Notre Dame's Snite Museum of Art.
by southbendtribune :: 2007-02-12 :: Art and Propaganda
Museum relates Vietnam War experience
The legacy of Vietnam leathernecks will be retold on a grander scale as the San Diego's Command Museum opens a new gallery, replete with a mini-tunnel and bunker complex, interactive maps, veterans' recounting of firefights and scores of displays including POW uniforms, booby traps and other collectibles. A 4-by-8-foot topographic relief floor map of Vietnam will greet visitors, and embedded lights will direct them to one of 4 galleries detailing combat operations. Text, photos and wartime artifacts will showcase stories. Audio recordings will recount veterans' battles and life in the war zone.
by marinetimes :: 2007-01-19 :: Art and Propaganda
Vietnam pictures - the last ones ever shot by the photographers
These are pictures of anguish and fear ... of gaping wounds and mud-smeared bodies ... of war machines and lonesome figures. These are pictures from Vietnam - from both sides of the battle. And each picture in this exhibit at Notre Dame's Snite Museum of Art is from one of the 135 photographers who were killed in action. Some of the pictures are the last ones ever shot by the photographers, the rolls sometimes still in their cameras. A few have won Pulitzer Prizes. "We hope that anyone who was affected by Vietnam or who has any curiosity about that war will want to come and see this exhibit."
by leatherneck.com :: 2007-01-07 :: Art and Propaganda
Michael Leahy was a combat artist in Vietnam
Article no longer available from the original source.
Vietnam vet Michael Leahy may not be as agile as he used to be, but his sharp mind hasn't forgotten the many scenes from the battlefield. He was a combat artist in Vietnam. He continued with his art after the war, but it wasn't until some 20 years later that his fellow soldiers began to seek his talents. They were ready, finally, to share their war experiences through Leahy's images. In a country deeply divided over Vietnam, it took many soldiers that long to "get over the feeling they were kind of an outcast generation."
by carynews :: 2006-11-12 :: Art and Propaganda
Robert Hedrix - symbol of the collapse of South Vietnam
One of the most arresting images from the last days of the Vietnam War shows an unruly crowd rushing the door of a plane in Nha Trang. The focal point of the photograph is a American who is landing a jab to the head of a Vietnamese man desperate to board. The American is all grim determination - extending his arm like a ramrod into the face of the intruder. The UPI photo identified him only as an American official, but he was a charter pilot hired by the State Department to move Americans from the countryside to Saigon. In 1985, after People magazine ran the photo with a story, some of his war-era buddies identified him: He was Robert D. Hedrix.
by hnn.us :: 2006-11-09 :: Art and Propaganda
Adrian Cronauer seeks to dispel myths about Vietnam vets
Article no longer available from the original source.
Something that Adrian Cronauer likes to get straight right away is that he is not Robin Williams, who portrayed Cronauer in an Oscar-nominated performance as the Vietnam War disc jockey in the film "Good Morning, Vietnam." Cronauer, a former U.S. Air Force sergeant, was the real-life voice on Armed Forces Radio in Saigon who inspired soldiers and co-wrote the original story for the movie. "There's the mythical image of the Vietnam veteran as a slovenly, ne'er-do-well, alcoholic, drug-abuser ... when really Vietnam veterans are the backbone of our society."
by postcrescent :: 2006-11-03 :: Art and Propaganda
Viet wartime propaganda attracts art lovers
Article no longer available from the original source.
Vietnam's wartime propaganda art inspired the masses a generation ago but as the communist country is hurling itself into the capitalist era the faded posters are getting a new life. Images of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, golden stars and square-jawed soldiers now grace coffee mugs and knock-off posters sold to tourists as iconic souvenirs from Vietnam's past. Surviving original artwork from the "American War" that was slowly rotting away a decade ago now fetches top dollar, and one foreign collector has amassed a large collection that may soon hit the Asian gallery circuit.
by manilatimes :: 2006-10-30 :: Art and Propaganda