On July 27, at the Youth Cultural House (HCMC), photographer Nguyen A organized an exhibition and introduced two photo books: "Death row inmates, former prisoners of Con Dao return" and "Special team to keep peace in the land of fire".
The displayed images not only speak of the silent dedication and sacrifice of our ancestors for the country, but are also meaningful works of art.
All the feelings of pride, solidarity, love and the strong ideals of the revolutionary soldiers have been encapsulated in more than 200 pages of the book. The cover photo is a very touching image of two women hugging and crying, a female tourist who could not control her emotions when meeting the “real person, real event” former prisoner Phan Thi Be Tu - a living witness who was brutally tortured in Con Dao.
Photographer Nguyen A shares about the process of creating the work.
Photographer Nguyen A shared: “Through the two books and exhibition, I hope I can express my respect to the death row inmates, former prisoners of Con Dao in particular, and to the heroes in general who are still able to admire and enjoy the peaceful days of the country. Through this, I also hope that young people will appreciate the values of peace , and understand the noble sacrifices of many uncles and aunts in the past.”
The book “The Land of Fire and Peace” tells the story of the bomb disposal team in the “land of fire” Quang Tri , but in the frames, it is all green. Green grass, green forest, green shirts, the badge of the NPA/RENEW organization is green and the eyes of the boys and girls when clearing bombs and destroying explosives are also green.
The book Death row inmates, former prisoners of Con Dao return on the day of their return follows former prisoners returning to Con Dao. The photo series has the main colors black and red from the uniforms of the group.
The author took souvenir photos with "living witnesses" at the book launch.
Returning to Con Dao with 39 uncles and aunts in their 80s for 5 days, the photographer was also fortunate to feel and respect the noble qualities of the loyal revolutionary soldiers. There were unforgettable moments of choking and tears. In particular, among them were 4 couples who were former prisoners and comrades in arms and until now they still live happily together.
Former death row inmate Ha Van Hien (Truong Tan Bien) shares about a photo taken of him in his old prison cell, now displayed at an exhibition on the day of the photo book launch.
Former death row inmate Ha Van Hien (Truong Tan Bien) said he thanked photographer Nguyen A for letting him relive the tragic yet heroic moments. He felt moved not only when he visited Con Dao prison where he was once imprisoned, but also because he was so lucky to be living in peace like today.
Photographer Nguyen A (born in 1968) has organized 16 exhibitions and launched photo books with many themes related to national pride and the beauty of the homeland, tangible and intangible culture such as: "Green Summer Youth Volunteers" (2008), "Hoang Sa - Truong Sa, Vietnam's sea and islands" (2014), "Don ca tai tu - Confessions of the nation and homeland" (2017), "Ly Son - Today" (2018), "Vietnamese spirit and the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic", "Stubborn Saigon", "Journey with peacekeeping forces in South Sudan" (2022)...
These two photo books have added to photographer Nguyen A's "asset" of 19 photo books. Of which, his most recent photo book Journey with the peacekeeping forces in South Sudan was awarded second prize at the 2022 National Award for Foreign Information and the 2022 Mai Vang Award of Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper.
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