open Democracy News Analysis - Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam, - Comments

Richard_E on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

Richard_E — Fri, 06 May 2005 20:38:05 +0100

Dear Philip, I just wanted to say thank you for responding to my comments. Documentary/photojournalism is a real passion for me and know that it is hard to make a living. In a world of material wealth it is hard for people to understand that you can gain richness in life other than money. Currently I am trying to get work published a put projects together but working on my own can be very hard. I am lucky that I have friends and family who don’t mind me crashing at there places when I’m back in England. Thank you once again for the inspiration and all the brilliant photographs you have taken over the years. If you have time I would be honoured if you would take a look at my website, it is still being worked on but will show you a selection of photographs. www.richard-evans.com Regards Richard

pjgriff@attglobal.net on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

pjgriff@attglobal.net — Wed, 04 May 2005 11:31:39 +0100

Dear Giles, See my replies to Richard and Jimi. It is indeed a grim time. But there are, here and there, magazines that do publish serious stories. One way is to work with an agency or even sell direct. Find a magazine that still uses compound sentences, make yourself known to them, get their ftp site, the Fetch programme for $25 and zap your pictures directly. Make sure you only send them pictures they’ve never seen before – YOUR original take on the world! Philip

pjgriff@attglobal.net on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

pjgriff@attglobal.net — Wed, 04 May 2005 11:30:19 +0100

Dear Jimi, To add to what I’ve replied to Richard Evans, photojournalism will NEVER die. The Internet and on-demand publishing are avenues that hold hope for the future, although financial remuneration remains elusive. There is no evidence that American intentions are being reviewed. They have the bit between their teeth and are galloping ahead. And it’s not just cultural imperialism! If Iran goes they will control everything from the Mediterranean to India. Philip

pjgriff@attglobal.net on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

pjgriff@attglobal.net — Wed, 04 May 2005 11:28:30 +0100

Dear Richard Evans You are quite right; these are tough times for photojournalism. Some say the pendulum will swing back to the old days before the great dumbing down occurred. One solution is to see photojournalism as a passion rather than a profession. I have made 26 trips to post-war Viet Nam, about a third on assignment and the rest in the hope that Magnum would later place my stories in magazines around the world. Finance is always a problem but there again the costs in Viet Nam are less than half those in the US. Air travel is cheap. I only shoot B/W when not on assignment and develop and print myself. Good stories will always get published, somewhere, some time. Good luck to you, Philip

pjgriff@attglobal.net on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

pjgriff@attglobal.net — Wed, 04 May 2005 11:26:32 +0100

Dear Mai Ghoussoub, 1/ On the technical side the ones I know have almost all switched to digital. They are the photographers either on contract to Western News Agencies or freelancing. Others, also using digital, are amateurs photographing as part of the excellent PHOTOVOICE project. 2/ Vietnamese photography covers a wide range. The traditional “pictorial” style is being slowly replaced by more socially aware concerns. 3/ Art in general and photography is general have always encompassed a whiff of derivation. So, yes, some are affected by the new style of contentless pictures. Others delight in pointing out life’s incongruities. 4/ The kids were confused (especially in Ho Chi Minh City, the old Saigon) by an avalanche of Western influences, especially the Internet. But remember, they were all born long after the war was over and represent the urban elite – about 25% of the 20% of people who live in urban centres. (80% of the people live in the countryside.) So I’m referring to less than 5% of the population that has the financial access to magazines. Nowadays I’ve found a shift amongst the young towards a more critical view of their history. Philip

pjgriff@attglobal.net on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

pjgriff@attglobal.net — Wed, 04 May 2005 11:25:12 +0100

Dear Nina, I think we have to accept that the old adage, “The history of a war is written by the winners” is definitely not true in the case of the Viet Nam! A huge industry consisting of revisionist historians (See Morris’ prevarications in last Saturday’s New York Times Op-ed page), conscripted academics, authors, movie and, yes, TV companies are busy obfuscating the truth. The same goes for Iraq. So your concerns are valid. Some of the pictures do look as if they’ve been shot for Army ads. This is one of the penalties for being embedded. Photographs of civilian casualties are ignored by the mainstream American press, yet pictures do exist. DAYSJAPAN magazine has given us a glimpse of what Americans have been denied. Even the Abu Ghraib pictures only represent a tiny proportion of all the abuse photographs taken. I’ve seen some of the others and perhaps they’ve never been shown because there’s not enough Dramamine to go around. Congratulations to you for the work you’ve done in humanising the conflict! Thank YOU, Philip

sixforests on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

sixforests — Tue, 03 May 2005 19:57:31 +0100

Dear Philip, I would like to begin, if I may, by passing along a few comments about your work and how it speaks to me personally. In doing so I'd like ask you some questions and to mention some of my own impressions of Viet Nam and of its people as they appear to me as well. The great value of your images as I find them is in their relentless focus on the slide of history and that the work taken as whole tends to possess a dignity that comes from an admiration of a people coming from behind the lens that captured them. These can be unsettling and raw...sometimes exquisite with poise. The best can speak to larger truths. But who are the photos for? I am not certain they are for this generation of Vietnamese. Are they are not a dialogue with yourself? In my limited experience the Vietnamese Kinh people they seem a group which grounds itself in an age-old relational identity of which the core is family and then extending to the larger continuity of the clan. It is a universe of blood and earth and the great pantheon of ancestors residing therein. The Communists laid moral claim this fact in the past and would (perhaps) like to think that they do so today still. This strength was something which the Americans with their insolent disregard for a history larger than themselves believed they could surpass. And, of course, they failed. This fact is priceless. Are your photographs not a record of this failure and of the price of that victory? This grounding I've just referred to in their land and their past has helped anchor the Vietnamese people from some of the worst that acquisitive consumer culture plays to. But what the future may hold is uncertain still. A generation has grown of age with the onslaught televised generated needs and to which they are basically defenseless. And is there is there not always a danger in idealizing the foreign as wiser and more noble than ourselves as you do in your otherwise fine introduction. Vietnam is older and more enduring, yes. But ask them yourself: are not the weaknesses of human nature the same where ever we find them?

giles_penfound on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

giles_penfound — Tue, 03 May 2005 19:29:56 +0100

Hi Phillip, I'm a great admirer of your work, not only from a photographic point of view but perhaps primarily because of its integrity. In an age when these qualities are so rare and the willingness of mainstream publishers to print hard hitting stories seems to be ever diminishing; where do you see the future for documentary photography, in a celebrity obsessed world? Without wanting to be completely negative I find myself in a constant lament for the great bastions of photojournalism, it seems even the Sunday Times cares more for the celebrity of the banal as opposed to the exploration of the hidden truth. Regards and my gratitude Giles

jimieye on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

jimieye — Tue, 03 May 2005 19:17:19 +0100

i would simply like to add to the last post by saying do you think photojournalism is dead or is it adapting to new outlets , also phillip do you think the american cultural imperialism will turn backwards after a while . thanks for all you good work phillip ... jimi

Richard_E on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

Richard_E — Tue, 03 May 2005 15:59:00 +0100

Dear Mr Griffith, First of all I just wanted to thank you for all the work you have done. To me photographing and documenting the world around us is something that is starting to become a lost art in the world of the MTV generation. We are all to concerned with pop culture rather than real issues that are going on in the world. My question to you is; How did you go about trying to get the stories together? Also when you are putting together projects now, how and who do you get to finance and funding that is needed? It seams to me that less and less newspapers and magazines are interested in documentary photographic work. Regards Richard Evans

ninaberman@hotmail.com on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

ninaberman@hotmail.com — Tue, 03 May 2005 12:27:00 +0100

Dear Philip, Thank you for your lifetime of work. I can't tell you how important your new book is, especially now, for those of us living in the US, who are witnessing the dangerous resurrection of the Vietnam War myths. Last night I watched a series on the History Channel on the Vietnam War. They interviewed American combat vets, who spoke teary eyed as they relived their battles. The interviews were cut with TV news footage and combat photography from Hue. The tired marines, the fallen comrades, the Americans under fire but heroes to the end. I felt sick, I felt betrayed, not one image, not one peep about the Vietnamese. I also felt confused as some of the black and white photography was spectacular, but in the end, it just seemed to reinforce the myth that the Vietnam war was a heroic and honorable enterprise and not the genocide you have shown it to be. Which brings me to a question... Is it possible to make combat photography that doesn't reinforce the myths of war and the warrior? And if so, what does it look like now? So many of the soldier pictures I have seen out of Iraq seem to paint a benign image of the combatant, even those taken by "famous" photographers. The deception is even greater when the images are beautiful because of light or sophisticated composition. I think of the sandstorm pictures on the road to Baghdad, or the countless images of backlit soldiers marching across the desert at sunset, or those insufferable shots through green night vision goggles. I believe one reason the Abu Ghraib torture pictures were so shocking, was because they were in such stark contrast to the cliche images we have seen over and over of American soldiers taken by American and European photogrphers who are themselves excited to be in conflict situations and can't help feeling invested in the soldiers who are charged with protecting them. Thank you, Nina Berman New York City

Maighoussoub@aol.com on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

Maighoussoub@aol.com — Tue, 03 May 2005 12:13:57 +0100

Dear Philip, I'd like to ask you four questions: Have you worked with local Vietnamese photographers lately? What is the effect of globalization and of the technical revolution- digital cameras etc. on their work? Is photography socially engaged among the young Vietnamese or concerned mainly with consumerism or fantasy? Bill Gates Vs. Ho Chi Minh. How is this translated in the visual artistic language of Vietnamese artists? Are they just bringing US imagery or putting their local vision into the new consumerist values? How do you relate the lack of memory among Young (East) Germans concerning Nazism (where shame may be behind the denial) and that of young Vietnamese (who must have witnessed the universal sympathy with their parents' resistance) who see Bill Gates as their hero?

pjgriff@attglobal.net on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

pjgriff@attglobal.net — Mon, 02 May 2005 14:08:38 +0100

Dear Anthony, I will try to answer your points in order: America had a relocation programme – the communists did not. Indeed, as Paul Mus pointed out, Ho Chi Minh always recognised that Viet Nam had to modernise and his genius was his ability to graft European Marxism onto local Confucianism. This resulted in a move away from superstition while enlisting some of its important traditional values. He never set out to obliterate the indigenous religion. The “genocidal forced urbanization” DID happen and it WAS from their ancestral lands. We might not think of our dead parents as “ancestors” but the Vietnamese certainly do. Therefore the time factor is not relevant. And even if it was, the relocated families in the Mekong Delta would be leaving behind up to ten generations of buried ancestors. On your last point, yes, the Vietnamese are unpredictable – but they still have smart minds! I also have a similar story to yours. In 1989 I interviewed Lt. General Phan Quang Tiep, Commander of the Truong Son Division, whilst making a film on the Ho Chi Minh Trail for the BBC. Here is what I wrote at the time: I asked Lieutenant General Phan Quang Tiep which of the schemes used to fool the sensors (dropped on the trail) was the most effective. He explained that the American system was set up by Western minds that thought along scientific lines. The Vietnamese, he insisted, were inherently unpredictable. The (US) computer would plot the average speed of a convoy and bomb accordingly, without taking into account some drivers’ frequent stops for meals and to repair the over-worked lorries. Other drivers would simply drive as fast as possible without a break, which equally confused the computer.

pjgriff@attglobal.net on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

pjgriff@attglobal.net — Mon, 02 May 2005 12:09:29 +0100

Considering the role of Roman Catholicism throughout Viet Nam history the tolerance of the present government is astounding. The introduction of the foreign religion of the colonialists successfully claimed the loyalty of a percentage of the population -- mainly misfits and those eager to ingratiate themselves with their masters for economic gain. They were the collaborators, fifth-columnist spies and informers for the French betraying their own people. (This, even today, is standard operating practice in many countries.) After the signing of the Geneva Accords in 1954, northern Catholics were persuaded to flee south by leaflets dropped by America warning that the Virgin Mary had gone south and urging the faithful to follow. The purpose was to provide a base of support in the south for Diem, a fanatical Roman Catholic installed as President by a cabal of US Roman Catholics headed by Cardinal Spellman, who later distinguished himself by encouraging soldiers departing for Viet Nam to “Kill a Commie for Christ!” Diem’s atrocities committed against the Buddhist people of South Viet Nam makes the tolerance displayed by the present government even more remarkable. As for “pouring boiling water down their throats” it seems you’re confusing Viet Nam with accounts of the Spanish Inquisition!

Ttrryosborn on "Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam"

Ttrryosborn — Mon, 02 May 2005 01:26:25 +0100

dscmpny, You can own property in a communist country? For someone who doesn't want trinkets, you're acquiring quite a baubble. I don't know your heritage, but if it is anything other than oriental, the orientals can be just as unfriendly to outsiders as any people on earth.

Philip Jones Griffiths Q & A - war photography and Vietnam,

Maryam Maruf — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 16:18:42 +0100

Acclaimed photographer Philip Jones Griffiths will be answering questions on war photography and Vietnam in a week-long exclusive Q & A. Start posting your questions here! You can read Philip's openDemocracy article here, and see more photographs from his new book, Viet Nam at Peace, here. ....................... Philip Jones Griffiths covered the Algerian War in 1962 and was then based in Central Africa, before moving to Asia. Read the rest of this post...