Saturday, March 12, 2016

Vietnam: photos from the "other side"

1973: A Viet Cong guerrilla stands guard in the Mekong Delta. "You could find women like her almost everywhere during the war," said the photographer. "She was only 24 years old but had been widowed twice. Both her husbands were soldiers. I saw her as the embodiment of the ideal guerrilla woman, who'd made great sacrifices for her country." (Image: Le Minh Truong/ANOTHER VIETNAM/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BOOKS)

"Many famous images of the war were taken by Western photographers and news agencies, working alongside American or South Vietnamese troops. 

But the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong [sic] had hundreds of photographers of their own, who documented every facet of the war under the most dangerous conditions. 

Almost all were self-taught, and worked for the Vietnam News Agency, the National Liberation Front, the North Vietnamese Army or various newspapers. Many sent in their film anonymously or under a nom de guerre, viewing themselves as a humble part of a larger struggle...

One hundred eighty of these unseen photos and the stories of the courageous men who made them are collected in the book Another Vietnam: Pictures of the War from the Other Side."

More of these photos here.