Photojournalist juxtaposes old, new
Update: Oct 26, 2009
A German photojournalist who was only 20 years old when he was on assignment in Vietnam in the 1960s has returned to exhibit a new collection of photos that juxtapose the old with the new.
 Born in Hamburg, Jochen Voigt is a photojournalist, documentary film producer and author of books who worked in central and southern Vietnam in 1967 and 1968.
His exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City features 127 black-and-white and colour photos of Vietnamese people, the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, Central Highlands, northern mountains, Ho Chi Minh Trail, and Hanoi and HCMC taken between 1967 and 1968, and from 2003 to 2008.
The title of the exhibition, the Nhip Cau Thoi Gian – Ky Uc Cho Tuong Lai (Bridge between times – Memory of the future) shows his strong belief that “whoever wants to read the future must leaf through the pastâ€.
“I don’t aim to provide photos of Vietnam’s historical events, but provide Vietnam through the eyes of a German,†Voigt said.
The photos of the past depict the optimism, friendliness and hospitality of people who believed in a bright future despite the hardship of the war.
In 2003, he returned to Vietnam and visited the country every year to rediscover the country. Last year, Voigt, now 62, travelled from HCMC to Hanoi across parts of the former Ho Chi Minh Trail by motorbike to access areas he had never seen during the war.
The 2003-2008 photos were taken in the same style he used during the war as a way of demonstrating similar situations and the bridge between the two eras.
The exhibition, organised by the General Consulate of Germany and the Goethe Institute in HCMC, opens at the Exhibition House at 92 Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1, until November 8.
Voigt has had two photo exhibitions on Vietnam in Germany and released a photography book on Vietnam’s tourism. After this exhibition, he will publish another book on the country.
VNA
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