Re: Larry Burrows & Tim Page [Off-topic]

[phong@doan-ltd.com (phong)]

Mark Newport (newport_m@utpb.edu) wrote:

    I heard yesterday that H. Faas and Tim Page have collaborated on a new
    Vietnam book that will be the subject of NPR's "Fresh Air" today (5 Nov).
    ...

Hi Mark & LUGers,

    Perhaps the book is "REQUIEM by the Photographers who died in Vietnam and
    Indochina" ?  I just bought a copy only yesterday, and spent the whole
evening
    pouring over the book.  I was born and raised in Saigon, so naturally
have much
    interest in things Vietnamese.  The book displays the work of
photographers of
    all nationalities, and from both sides of the war, who are known or
suspected to 
    have died during the war.  The text gives a taste of their lifes and
deaths.  
    Particularly moving is the transcript of the tape recording made by
Bernard Fall
    (author of "Street Without Joy") as he followed a group of U.S. marines.
They
    fell into an ambush, and Fall was killed.  There's also the very last
frame made
    by Robert Capa, shortly before he stepped on a land mine.  Or Larry
Burrows, who        
    died when his helicopter was shot down.  Or Michel Laurent, the news of
whose
    death I still vividly remember.  Or Huynh Thanh My, the AP photographer
who was
    wounded, and killed while waiting for evacuation; undaunted, his younger
brother
    Huynh Cong Ut followed his footsteps as an AP photographer, and
subsequently won the 
    Pulitzer prize with the photo of the little girl crying and running
after being burnt 
    by napalm bomb. Incidentally, I did not know Ut was Vietnamese and
brother of My, as he 
    is usually known as Nick Ut; I have always thought he is a Westerner.
Also of great 
    interest is the account of the unamed and unknown North Vietnamese
combat photographers     who had to work with makeshift darkrooms, and sent
their courier by foot back to the    
    North.  There are many, many more anecdotes, both tragic and heroic, as
in any other
    war.
 
    I can only recommend this book.  Other wars make me sad; this one makes
me cry.

    Sincerely,

- - Phong