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Vietnam: A Book of Changes
A photographer's compelling and poetic odyssey through modern-day Vietnam. Mitch Epstein's evocative pictures reveal a complex Vietnam that few Americans have ever seen.This is not a document about the war; nor is it the pastoral idyll other photographers have portrayed. Vietnam, through Epstein's eyes, is a sometimes disturbing and sometimes sublime palimpsest.
A Book of Changes interprets a culture and landscape largely cut off from the West for the last thirty years, and now open to a market economy and a new relationship to America. The photographs are suffused with the rawness of Vietnamese life lived on the economic and political edge. Under the layer of friendship lies the tension of politics; under beauty lies violence; under the stark faces of remote villagers is the entrepreneurial momentum drawing them to the city; and under the remnants of war is an artistic bohemia grappling with new freedoms and continued censorship.
A Book of Changes interprets a culture and landscape largely cut off from the West for the last thirty years, and now open to a market economy and a new relationship to America. The photographs are suffused with the rawness of Vietnamese life lived on the economic and political edge. Under the layer of friendship lies the tension of politics; under beauty lies violence; under the stark faces of remote villagers is the entrepreneurial momentum drawing them to the city; and under the remnants of war is an artistic bohemia grappling with new freedoms and continued censorship.
23 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 10, 2009
This image is a good example of how photographers have great eyes for an image that can tell a story. It has a pop art feel to it because of the repeated imagery, like Andy Warhol's portrait of Chairman Mao. The other similarity is the iconography of the subject mater. Since it is a bust, it has that Roman classicism feel to it. It's interesting that I find capitalism in the way the art is presented. Warhol's pop method elevated our taste for consumerism and fame. He put it on the same level of art. It is a new art form. I find the language of western image making in the way I see the work. I like how each sucessive image is reveal and how the yellowing news paper wrapped around the bust second bust which is older then the newer newspaper wrapings of the first bust, seem to convey the passage of time and also to herald in the news of the day, the change of regime and the impact that it will have on the land. I do remember the requirement to have a picture of Ho Chi Ming on the wall of every house hold. This idea was borrowed from Chairman Mao. In the essay, Mitch mention how much change he saw on the subsequent trips Vietnam. These pictures were made over a long period of time during the 1990s. It is my favorite image of the whole book.
January 11, 2012
A collection of photos from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, and some rural spots. Taken in the mid 90s, 15 years before I visited the country.
I was going alone, having split from my friends back in Bangkok as part of a six week foray through SE Asia, my first time back after studying there in college. In retrospect, I wish I had budgeted more time for Vietnam, Hanoi in particular. I spent two weeks meandering up the country and it wasn't enough.
Did he see a different Vietnam than I did? It's all I was thinking about as I looked over these photos. There's no doubt that the Vietnam that I saw was more developed than the one he is sharing with me. But, as William Gibson puts it "the future is now, it is just not evenly distributed." And as a traveler from the richest country in the world, I only end up remembering what was novel for me, the parts of Vietnam the future hadn't touched.
And so what I remember, what these photographs recalled, is textures. All of the buildings, appliances, vehicles, feel well loved. Textures persist there in objects that we would have painted over or thrown out. This is not unique to Vietnam. I don't know how to put to words what is unique about Vietnam, so I'm pleased to have a book of photography instead.
I was going alone, having split from my friends back in Bangkok as part of a six week foray through SE Asia, my first time back after studying there in college. In retrospect, I wish I had budgeted more time for Vietnam, Hanoi in particular. I spent two weeks meandering up the country and it wasn't enough.
Did he see a different Vietnam than I did? It's all I was thinking about as I looked over these photos. There's no doubt that the Vietnam that I saw was more developed than the one he is sharing with me. But, as William Gibson puts it "the future is now, it is just not evenly distributed." And as a traveler from the richest country in the world, I only end up remembering what was novel for me, the parts of Vietnam the future hadn't touched.
And so what I remember, what these photographs recalled, is textures. All of the buildings, appliances, vehicles, feel well loved. Textures persist there in objects that we would have painted over or thrown out. This is not unique to Vietnam. I don't know how to put to words what is unique about Vietnam, so I'm pleased to have a book of photography instead.
March 15, 2010
Viet Nam does not look like a place I would want to live. This is a photo book of the inner workings of Viet Nam. Nothing too graphic but always the dirt and decay.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews