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Requiem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina
Between the height of the French Indochina War in the fifties and the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon in 1975, 135 photographers from all sides of the conflict are recorded as missing or having been killed. This book is a memorial to those men and women, and in many cases it includes the last photographs they took.
Horst Faas and Tim Page, two photographers who worked and were wounded in Vietnam, have gathered many thousands of pictures by those who were killed. Their search has taken them through the archives in Hanoi as well as those of Western agencies. In some cases families have generously provided access to private files where unknown bodies of work have lain unseen for more than forty years.
The list of the dead includes some of the greatest photographers of the century, such as Robert Capa and Larry Burrows, and some who had been working in Vietnam for only a matter of days before their deaths. A number of the Cambodian photographers working for the Western press were executed. Other photographers, like Sean Flynn and Dana Stone, disappeared. Their loss inspired Tim Page to begin this memorial.
The resulting sequence of photographs follows the course of the war and the transformation of the serene landscapes of Cambodia and Vietnam into scenes of nightmarish devastation. At the moments of intense battle one is reminded not only of the courage of the photographers but of the compassion amid the brutality of war. These photographers were intimate with war to a degree that may well be denied future generations. That intimacy led to their deaths. Their photographs are their legacy.
Horst Faas and Tim Page, two photographers who worked and were wounded in Vietnam, have gathered many thousands of pictures by those who were killed. Their search has taken them through the archives in Hanoi as well as those of Western agencies. In some cases families have generously provided access to private files where unknown bodies of work have lain unseen for more than forty years.
The list of the dead includes some of the greatest photographers of the century, such as Robert Capa and Larry Burrows, and some who had been working in Vietnam for only a matter of days before their deaths. A number of the Cambodian photographers working for the Western press were executed. Other photographers, like Sean Flynn and Dana Stone, disappeared. Their loss inspired Tim Page to begin this memorial.
The resulting sequence of photographs follows the course of the war and the transformation of the serene landscapes of Cambodia and Vietnam into scenes of nightmarish devastation. At the moments of intense battle one is reminded not only of the courage of the photographers but of the compassion amid the brutality of war. These photographers were intimate with war to a degree that may well be denied future generations. That intimacy led to their deaths. Their photographs are their legacy.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1997
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About the author
Tim Page
21 books12 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Tim Page (25 May 1944 – 24 August 2022) was an English photographer who made his name during the Vietnam War and based in Brisbane, Australia.
Page was a photojournalist in Sth East Asia and was injured in action four times, from 1967 to 1969.
During Page's recovery, back in the US, in the spring of 1970 he learnt of the capture of his best friend, roommate and fellow photo-journalist Sean Flynn in Cambodia. Throughout the 1970s and 80s he tried to discover Flynn's fate and final resting place and wanted to erect a memorial to all those in the media who either were killed or went missing in the Vietnam wars. This led him to found the Indochina Media Memorial Foundation and was the genesis for the book Requiem, co-edited with fellow Vietnam War photographer Horst Faas. Page's quest to clear up the mystery of Flynn's fate continued; as late as 2009 he was back in Cambodia, still searching for the site of Flynn's remains.
Page's book Requiem contains photographs taken by all of the photographers and journalists killed during the Vietnamese wars against the Japanese, French and Americans. Requiem has become since early 2000 a traveling photographic exhibition placed under the custody of the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. The exhibition has been presented in Vietnam's War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, as well as in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Tokyo, Hanoi, Lausanne, and London. In 2011, it was selected to be the main exhibition of the Month of Photography Asia in Singapore.
Page is the subject of many documentaries and two films, and is the author of many books. He lived in Brisbane, Australia and no longer covers wars. He was Adjunct Professor of Photojournalism at Griffith University. - Wikipedia
Tim Page (25 May 1944 – 24 August 2022) was an English photographer who made his name during the Vietnam War and based in Brisbane, Australia.
Page was a photojournalist in Sth East Asia and was injured in action four times, from 1967 to 1969.
During Page's recovery, back in the US, in the spring of 1970 he learnt of the capture of his best friend, roommate and fellow photo-journalist Sean Flynn in Cambodia. Throughout the 1970s and 80s he tried to discover Flynn's fate and final resting place and wanted to erect a memorial to all those in the media who either were killed or went missing in the Vietnam wars. This led him to found the Indochina Media Memorial Foundation and was the genesis for the book Requiem, co-edited with fellow Vietnam War photographer Horst Faas. Page's quest to clear up the mystery of Flynn's fate continued; as late as 2009 he was back in Cambodia, still searching for the site of Flynn's remains.
Page's book Requiem contains photographs taken by all of the photographers and journalists killed during the Vietnamese wars against the Japanese, French and Americans. Requiem has become since early 2000 a traveling photographic exhibition placed under the custody of the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. The exhibition has been presented in Vietnam's War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, as well as in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Tokyo, Hanoi, Lausanne, and London. In 2011, it was selected to be the main exhibition of the Month of Photography Asia in Singapore.
Page is the subject of many documentaries and two films, and is the author of many books. He lived in Brisbane, Australia and no longer covers wars. He was Adjunct Professor of Photojournalism at Griffith University. - Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 29, 2011
Gotta love books that make you go looking for more information. Thank you Tatjana Soli for your afterward in "The Lotus Eaters". I spent a couple of hours at the U of U library (the only place I could find it without buying it) reading through Requiem and looking at the photos. Henri Huet, Dickey Chapelle, and Larry Burrows stand out, but many others were very interesting to read about. I think Soli relied heavily on this book. I am haunted by Dickey Chapelle's story and her dying photograph. What a time to be a woman in a war zone. I have also been on line reading about Catherine Leroy, another woman photographer during the Vietnam War. Soli seems to have combined Chapelle and Leroy for her Helen character, and perhaps Sam Darrow is based on Larry Burrows. Requiem helped me to understand the history of war in Vietnam, put faces to people who were the real "lotus eaters", and why Soli added the Cambodian sequence at the end of the book. The photographs of Angkor were very nice. This book is certainly worth looking at if you have any interest in the Vietnam War and enjoyed "The Lotus Eaters".
December 11, 2012
Wow. I think I'd like to add this book to my personal collection. This is a powerful and sad, but fitting tribute, to those photographers who died or went missing during the Vietnam conflict. The accompanying text includes short essays and excerpts from newswires, magazines, and transcripts and puts the photographs in context. Even without the text, it would be hard not to moved by some of these images.
August 4, 2022
Some of the photographs contained are beautiful, even incredible.
However, they are accompanied by editorializing of the far-left variety. Particularly outrageous are the columns written by Tad Bartimus. She disparages more-or-less every European power, with no infraction so small as to escape her notice:
"The Portuguese stayed only long enough to clutter up the maps with misnomers. It was left to the French in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to mislead cartographers..."
On seeing this hyper moral sensitivity, you may be steeling yourself for what must be an epic excoriation of Communist dictator, butcher, and mass torturer Ho Chi Minh. No need. She repeats a poem written by Ho, about Ho. It's quite flattering as you might imagine. And then her first column just... ends.
Her justification and defense of Communist dictatorship continues into her next piece. When Truman backed Ho's opposition, "The opportunity for an American-supported unified Vietnam was being lost." But what if freedom was preferable to countless Vietnamese than a "unified Vietnam"? What if they had no desire to be tortured for speech, murdered for dissent, as was, and is, common to every Communist nation?
I would not have written a paean to a devil like Ho, nor glossed over the most murderous ideology in world history, nor used a scanning electron microscope to detect minute sins on the basis of continental origin. But I am not Tad Bartimus.
However, they are accompanied by editorializing of the far-left variety. Particularly outrageous are the columns written by Tad Bartimus. She disparages more-or-less every European power, with no infraction so small as to escape her notice:
"The Portuguese stayed only long enough to clutter up the maps with misnomers. It was left to the French in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to mislead cartographers..."
On seeing this hyper moral sensitivity, you may be steeling yourself for what must be an epic excoriation of Communist dictator, butcher, and mass torturer Ho Chi Minh. No need. She repeats a poem written by Ho, about Ho. It's quite flattering as you might imagine. And then her first column just... ends.
Her justification and defense of Communist dictatorship continues into her next piece. When Truman backed Ho's opposition, "The opportunity for an American-supported unified Vietnam was being lost." But what if freedom was preferable to countless Vietnamese than a "unified Vietnam"? What if they had no desire to be tortured for speech, murdered for dissent, as was, and is, common to every Communist nation?
I would not have written a paean to a devil like Ho, nor glossed over the most murderous ideology in world history, nor used a scanning electron microscope to detect minute sins on the basis of continental origin. But I am not Tad Bartimus.
August 15, 2018
Amazing and heartbreaking. Get a copy of this if you can.
May 11, 2020
A beautiful tribute to those who are often overlooked.
December 4, 2022
Spectacular. The photos are poignant and in some cases, the photographers' last. I learned a lot, both in my brain and in my heart.
June 24, 2024
Some of the photos are difficult to look at.
June 30, 2010
This was an especially poignant book as the photographs were taken by photographers who were killed in the conflict. It is amazing after reading the stories of the war to see these images. The pictures of the soldiers especially helps you visualize each individual and it sure helped me understand the sacrifice of these men.
July 8, 2010
Powerful.
April 21, 2013
Stunning.
December 14, 2015
Sobering. Interesting to read this after seeing some of the photos used in an exhibit of the War Remnants Museum.
October 27, 2016
Great photos; I was shocked by how many photographer died during these wars, on both sides.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews