"Agent Orange" - folder

[roland_schmid]

Hello

 

In June I showed two photographs of my project about the consequences

of the chemical war in Vietnam. Some people asked me to show more

pictures in photo.net At last I'm able to do that. It is impossible to

give here all the necessary informations and facts but I hope that the

pictures can transmit a certain idea of the whole problem. I know also

that there are many other victims in USA, South Corea, Australia and

Cambodia - I show only one side of the coin. One of my future projects

is to make a documentation about the victims in USA.

 

Here is the folder:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder.tcl?folder_id=233567

 

Thanks for your attention

 

Roland

 

PS: I hope my English in the legends isn't to confusing..<div></div>

[chris_marolf1]

Roland - thanks for sharing these photos! They certainly succeed in conveying a sense of the problem, as you state in your introduction. I think the presentation of this body of work is critical, and a photo.net folder doesn't really do this work justice. Are you showing these images as part of an exhibit or a dedicated website as well? Is there accompanying text to explain the history and science, your mission, etc?

[roland_schmid]

Chris - thank you for your interest.

Here is our Agent Orange webside which contents also an English text:

 

http://www.agentorange.reflection.org

 

Regards

 

Roland

[raymond_tai]

Roland, These photos are top notch and do the victims justice. Ten million

civilians dead from US carpet bombings in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. At

least they didn't have to suffer from agent orange.

[glenn_travis]

Roland, I've been following your thread with interest. Thought you might get a lot more responses, since this is such serious work and several steps above what is usually posted. An outstanding portfolio. Bravo! - Just remeber, that if you seek a lot of feedback here, then you need to post baby, wedding, or model snaps. That's this forums lost, not yours. Again, this is just outstanding work.

[henk]

Roland,

 

I wont be bravoing anything, but the fact that you were able to capture some of the humor, willpower, adjustibility and resiliance of these people really makes it more than a documentation. I think you should send it of to publishers and try to work this up to a bigger audience.

 

Greetings,

[jkantor]

When I visited the "Museum of American War Crimes" in 1994, what was notable were the Vietnamese outside selling souvenirs. There were only a few tourists in the museum. No one I spoke to at the time was remotely interested in bringing up the war - just in moving forward. Most wore clothes with American slogans, listened to American music, and were interested in buying American products.

 

Furthermore, when they did talk about the war, strangely enough US involvement was of secondary importance. After all we were just the last in a long line of outsiders getting involved in what, to them, was a civil war.

[emre]

Dear Roland,

<p>

I was immediately impressed, but kept silent to develop my response. As the other responders said, what you have here is an important document. A journalistic work is useful only to the degree that people are aware of it, therefore I stronly urge you to pursue publication. I know that Vietnam is a passe topic, but in light of current events, it seems that the message is not getting through, so there is still a need for your material. Books are probably the target media at this point in history; I'm sure you are resourceful enough to do your own research on this. In particular, the pictures of the bottled children really touch me.

<p>

If it had no other saving grace, I think the Vietnam war can be remembered for the excellent journalism. Indeed, it was the "journalist's war", due to the lenience granted by the US government. Initially everything was fine, so there was no harm in documenting it. As time progressed, the situation became more sticky, and the rest is history... To reach any credible information these days you have to look on the Internet.

<p>

Anyone interested in a photojournalism (not just about Vietnam) <b>must</b> read <a href="http://www.magnumarchive.com/c/htm/Pa.aspx?E=2K7O3RP3N9U"><i>Vietnam Inc.</i></a> by <a href="http://www.magnumarchive.com/c/htm/TreePf.aspx?E=29YL53IRGC5">Philip Jones Griffiths</a>. Even if your political views are discordant, you must admire the sheer effort the man put into the book that I humbly believe is the <b>pinnacle of photojournalism</b>. The book was out of print for thirty years (books that tell the truth about war are generally not popular), and sold second-hand for over $200 until Phaidon <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0714841528/qid%3D/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-5900005-5776937">re-released it</a> (ISBN: 0714841528), with a new preface by Noam Chomsky. It can now be had for a very reasonable $30.

<p>

Keep it up, and inform us of the project's progress. I would like to know, if nobody else does.

[jeff_drew4]

As a VietNam era veteran and a former journalist, I applaud the on-going efforts to record and bring to light all the tragedies involving the human race! Some U.S. service personnel were/are victims of Agent Orange as well. I lost 2 veteran friends to cancer-like diseases. They participated, as ordered, in loading the sprayers and aircraft. Their deaths were premature, painful, and for one of the families, one son of the soldier suffered some birth defects.

IMHO, being right or wrong about war is irrelevant. There is always tragedy and suffering as a result of war. Somebody needs to record it and preserve the information. It's too bad that after millenia, humans still make war.

[omar havana]

Dear Roalnd,

I'm impressed with the pictures, and I have to agree with you, few months ago I posted a photo from a child in Cambodia viticm of an american landmine, the child has no arms and he told to please take him a picture and to please listen his history to tell to the people back in Europe, the only comments there were against the sentence ''american landmine'' when the only thing that i did was to repite his words, some people want to forget that there are wars in the world and that innocent people died to make fortunes for others, everyone knows that vietnam war was a mistake, I was in Vietnam for a month and I got close to people that have been in hamburger hill fighting, and in cuchi and in my opinion that people need that the world tell their history and u are doing very well, if u want to see the pic is in my folder feelings of war, please keep going on with this is fantastic, thanks