Another Vietnam: Pictures of the War from the Other Side

by Tim Page

A stunning compilation of 160 never-before-published images by North Vietnamese photographers capture the events of the Vietnam War from a dramatic new perspective and document daily life and battle on the North Vietnamese side.

Genres: Photography, History, War

264 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2002

About the author

Librarian 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

Reviews

[Owlseyes]

(During French occupation, tunnels construction; before the war with the Americans)



It's been for granted, for years, I've admired the bravery of the Vietnamese resistance. Here in the West we usually have access,though, to one side of the narrative about the Vietnam War. Yet, my friend David Gustafson called my attention to this book and its photos; in his words it depicts the "other side". Well said. Thank you David.













Here, more:
http://mashable.com/2016/02/05/anothe...

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found "Another Vietnam" fascinating, but it had one giant weakness. There is no attempt to distinguish the staged propaganda photos from the real photos of NVA and VC fighters in action and everyday activities. I am Vietnam veteran and was a photo editor for some years working with newspaper photographers. I have a good idea when I'm looking at a candid photo as opposed to a staged shot. Details matter. Lighting, composition, subject, background, and angle of view are all crucial.

Consider the Plain of Reeds "combat" photo for one. What are the chances a VC or NVA photographer would be in just the right place at just the right time with just the right lighting to make this perfectly framed photo? At least four soldiers on each side have their rifles leveled at each other, but nobody is firing. If this is combat, why are there no dead and wounded face down in the swamp? And the camera's point of view seems to be seven or eight feet above the ground ... the only way to focus this entire very deep scene in one frame. What's with the unarmed "director" in the lower left corner? And the camouflage the NVA/VC are wearing? C'mon. The bo dois were masters of camouflage using natural foliage. The guys in this photo aren't even trying.

And the blurb on Amazon includes this " ... the pictures are a mixture of staged, unabashed propaganda ("I wanted my pictures to be a weapon," says photographer Mai Nam, a longtime Vietnamese Communist Party member)" etc.

"Another Vietnam" is certainly a valuable record, with the caveat that a lot of the content is staged. At least it shows how the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong used photography and idealized their fighters.

[Wendy Feltham · Rating 4 out of 5]

After finishing Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, I was eager to see images of the Vietnam War. To my surprise, my local public library had two perfect books-- Larry Burrows Vietnam, images by the brilliant Life magazine photographer, and Another Vietnam: Pictures of the War from the Other Side. Another Vietnam shows the images by North Vietnamese combat photographers, and provides biographical information about them, including whether or not they survived the war. Most of the photos were created with a basic East German camera, processed in river water at night, and rushed on bikes and foot to Hanoi for publication. Many of the images are stunning and heartbreaking, and others intentionally staged as inspiration for the soldiers. Author Tim Page, a British combat photographer, points out when photos are not posed, such as a shocking scene of an improvised operating room in a mangrove swamp. Tim Page contributes long and fascinating essays that provide background about the events and why they were important to the North Vietnam. I wish he had organized the book chronologically, because it was difficult for me to understand the sequence of events in every chapter, with the order of photos so jumbled.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This outstanding book gives a name and a face to the local communities and soldiers caught in front of or behind enemy lines in multiple wars and skirmishes in Vietnam. Most importantly for people who do not know 'their enemy' from the Vietnam War as anything but 'gooks' or 'charlies' this book will humanize the soldiers who fought for the NVA or Viet Kong.
They may have fought differently, reacted unexpectedly, but they were soldiers too, signing up, training hard, fighting with courage, doing what commanders told them to do and dying or being wounded by the hundreds of thousands.
This book gives you a look inside that.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few issues wrecked this otherwise fascinating look at the Vietnam War. One was the messed up type on a couple of pages--hideously blurry in my edition. The other was that the essays accompanying the photos simply weren't that great. I think the authors were going for "colloquial" and "accessible," but it read like something written at three in the morning by a hungover college freshman.

Still, the photos were striking and memorable, and I definitely plan to look up the other major book Doug Niven was involved in, "The Killing Fields."

[Constantine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A view of the war you never saw before. Very moving.