Nguyen Huu An (left), 5 years old and Nguyen Thi Than Tuyen, 3 years old with their mother in Huong Xuan near Hue. The father lived in the Agent Orange infected province Song Be.

This image disturbs

me and I really wish

I never saw it.

Necip, that is likely because you are a fool. Keep taking pictures of birds and dragonflies and keep your stupid comments to yourself.

This photograph reminds me of the effects in the fifties and sixties of thalidomide on our children, of the photos of flippers for arms, of legless armless infants, all in the effort to make a pregnancy easier for a mother without considering the consequences. It's obvious from this amazing photo that the bottom line when agent orange was used was, get the foliage off the trees, this stuff won't hurt anyone.

 

I have a friend dying of diabetes. He was in Viet Nam, and Agent Orange, it turns out, also destroys your pancreas. yes it does effect the soldiers, and the vietnamese, and is a powerful reminder that our actions sometimes have amazingly painful consequences.

 

The eyes LOOK at you. How can anyone not be moved by that. I suspect this shot was not so much composed as chosed out of many, since there is an immediacy about it, a realness that so many staged photos lack. Powerful stuff, here.

The subject matter is very compelling and worthy of discussion, but the photograph itself is not. This is a snapshot, plain and simple. I see no effort to use creative lighting, angles, etc. Shot from eye level...

 

I get SO bored with shots of children (or elderly people) in 3rd world countries looking forlornly into the camera, large pleading eyes, a dirty face, and people thinking this is a good shot. Anyone can walk down the street in a 3rd world country and find this kind of subject matter. It takes no creativity, special effort or talent.

 

Now, take that same child reaching for a food handout, or licking a bowl, or in some way DOING something relative to the "story" a photographer wants to tell, then you've got a photograph worth capturing. C'mon, folks, put some effort into your photography. Do something different.

I like how the author composed this photograph. There are so many elements that tell a story within the shot. Here we have two children deformed by the chemical agent orange, and behind them are what appears to be normal kids behind bars. It provides us with a sense of innocence, tragedy and some irony. A photogrpah can be judged, but rarely does a photograph make us look within.

These are the unfortunate realities we always try to walk pass with closed eyes. great documentation and thanks for showing us.

bk

Shocking and powerful - only human beings could be so cruel as to use a chemical that causes such appaling genetic damage to pass onto ones children.

A very powerful image showing the ravages of war continuing on to the next generation. Who know when it will stop.

 

A very strong composition in that the mother (?) is in clear view as well as the added contrast of the childrem outside while the bars want to restrain the agent orange mutation from the outside world. Here's a case where adding color would destroy the drama. A very emotional, powerful, anti-war statement. Hats of to you, Sir!

 

Warm regards,

Glen

THis is the type of image that inspired me to go to MICA and earn my degree in photography and it reminds me that I have lost that passion as documentarian obligated to commuicate cultural events and contemporary history thru the one true universal form of commuication...art

 

Thank you for reminding me...

 

Fortunately the war is over....Unfortunately the battle never ends. I applaud your perception to show plainly the truth.

 

God Bless Them Always,

Very sad story but strong image...

As a Vietnamese who lived through much of the "American war" (as opposed to the "French war" prior to that) I would agree

with Animesh Ray that wars are composed of many dirty, atrocious, despicable, regrettable, inhuman and inexcusable acts,

especially seen in retrospection. The disastrous effects of a war can last over generations, to both sides. These physical

deformities seen in this photo are but the external manifestations of an ugliness of our collective souls. Our revulsion,

stated so clearly by most of the commentators of this photo, is a result of feeling a collective guilt. Hopefully, in that guilt

lies our capacity for forgiveness and redemption too. Thanks Roland Schmid for a strong anti-war statement.

Sadly as I am writing this Russia and Georgia are engaging in a conflict that will resolve in huge loss of lives and loss of

good will to achieve peace for generations yet to come.

I am having a very visceral reaction to that photo.

I am James Caccavo. I found my name on your website regarding Roland Schmid's photo of Vietnamese children affected

by Agent Orange. I was the Red Cross photographer for the Viet Nam War and have been making regular trips back to Viet

Nam to work with the Viet Nam Red Cross on Agent Orange. My goal has been to get the US to commit to helping the

Vietnamese and in the process learn more to help our military veterans and their children. My 12 Nov, 2000 Opinion piece for

the LOS ANGELES TIMES, "The Chance to Put the Vienam War Behind US," is one of the most quoted and translated

articles on the subject. There is now an American office in Hanoi quietly helping the Vietnamese "with disabilities." Schmid's

photo is well done. The beauty of documentary photography is not only in its aesthetics and compositition, but in the

emotions it provokes in the viewer; putting us in touch with our common humanity. Again, Roland Scmid did this quite well.

A masterpiece of communication, composition and photographic art (the bars separating the beautiful but chemically assaulted children from those outside). One of the best I have seen on Photo.Net.