Vietnam War Photography: 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War

By Liz Chilsen, Chicago Now

The 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War is being commemorated by the Associated Press with a photography book called Vietnam: The Real War, A Photographic History by the Associated Press . Pete Hamill, a photographer who worked in Vietnam at the time, wrote the introduction. “Say the word ‘Vietnam’ today to most people of a certain age; the image that rises is usually a photograph. An AP photograph.”

Cover of Vietnam: The Real War

The book includes 300 images by photographers  who worked for the Associated Press during the war years in Vietnam. It gathers some truly amazing photographs  by people who put their life on the line to make a record of that horrible conflict . Many of them were motivated by an urgent desire to end the war and stop people’s suffering. A related exhibition is at Steven Kasher Gallery  in New York through November 26.

In a recent trip to Vietnam, I visited the War Remnants Museum in Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City. The museum also hosts a compilation of photographic images from the war, showcasing the work of men and women from across the globe who died or are recorded as missing in Vietnam during this era.

Photographers Tim Page and Horst Faas, who had both been injured in Vietnam, worked for 4 years gathering thousands of photographs by 134 photographers. “Requiem” includes work by Vietnamese photographers on both sides of the conflict as well as American, French, Australian photographers and those from 5 other countries. Requiem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina  was published by Random House in 1997.

Read the full article by Liz Chilsen from Chicago Now.