German Consulate General holds photo exhibition on Vietnam’s wartime in Ho Chi Minh City
Thursday, March 16, 2023, 10:02 GMT+7
The German Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, in collaboration with the Goethe Institute, Deutsches Haus (German House), and Camera Work, recently opened a photo exhibition titled 'A Reunion with Vietnam,' which highlights Vietnam’s wartime and post-war period (1967-1999).
The exhibition is open to the public on Floor 2 of German House at 33 Le Duan Boulevard in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1.
The ongoing exhibition, which is set to wrap up on March 29, features a series of photographs taken by German photographer Thomas Billhardt.
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| The exhibition space. Photo: Tieu Bac / Tuoi Tre News |
Billhardt is considered one of the most important documentary photographers from the German Democratic Republic, the Goethe Institute in Ho Chi Minh City said in a press release on March 8.
Between 1962 and 1975, Billhardt traveled to Vietnam eight times and took numerous photos of Vietnamese people’s daily activities amid bomb attacks.
His pictures documented the horrors of war in Vietnam, especially in the faces of children he photographed.
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| A photo of Dang Tran, 28, holding the picture of her being four years old captured by Thomas Billhardt in Hanoi in 1999 at the exhibition. Photo: Tieu Bac / Tuoi Tre News |
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| Pictures show children and buffaloes in the 1967-1972 period taken by Thomas Billhardt displayed at the exhibition. Photo: Tieu Bac / Tuoi Tre News |
Thomas Billhardt calls his pictures 'honest' to underscore his independence as an artist and emphasizes that what counts for him is an unobstructed view, according to the press release.
What comes before his lens and why he presses the shutter must be worth capturing, not only because the negative films were expensive at the time, but also because he photographed the moments that would not come back.
They were a beautiful face in a gray world, an innocent laugh in a harsh and threatening environment, an everyday idyll that helps forget fear and war and gives hope for normality in peace.
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| A photo shows children hiding in a concrete shelter tube in Hanoi in 1968 at the exhibition. Photo: Tieu Bac / Tuoi Tre News |
His photographs have been published in several illustrated books, including 'Hanoi 1967-1975' released in Vietnam by Nha Nam Company in 2021.
Here are other photos of Vietnam’s wartime and post-war period by Thomas Billhardt displayd at the exhibition:
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