“December 1972 […] We visited a refugee camp on a former US military base in Da Nang. On the door of a hut made of odds and ends, a clumsy tag: Forget ME Not. […] Forty-five years later … I think it’s time for me too to write “Forget ME Not” somewhere. I immersed myself in my contact sheets, happy to revive my memories as the strips of negatives unfurl, marveling to discover some nuggets that had not caught my attention during the editing of 1972. ”
Abbas plunged back into the 1970s and gives us an intimate selection of reportages made in Vietnam from 1972 to 1975, being one of the first photographers to bring back images of the Viet Cong. Deeply marked by this country, he returned in 2008 and confronted his memories of a new nation that had opened up to capitalism.
From Saigon to Hanoi, through the anti-war protests in Miami and the Cuban Non-Aligned Summit, until his return to Vietnam thirty years later, this book includes war photos, but also and especially images of the cities that the photographer traveled to, the faces of those he met. Beyond the historical and political testimony, Abbas tells of his daily life, of the country that touched him so much.
Abbas is an Iranian photojournalist born in 1944 who passed away in 2018. He began his career in the 1970s, with reportages on the political and social life of regions of conflicts (Biafra, Vietnam, Middle East, Chile or South Africa). ). In 1980, he covered the Iranian revolution and published his first book Iran: the confiscated revolution, a book that would condemn him to exile. Abbas traveled and developed a special interest for religions (monotheists and polytheists). He traveled and portrayed the world through what is spiritual. Abbas was a member of the Magnum agency since 1985.
Vietnam, Abbas – Forget ME Not
Published by Éditions Delpire
Collection: Images and words
Binding: paperback with flaps
Size: 16.5 x 20 cm
130 black and white photos
240 pages
€ 28
http://www.delpire-editeur.fr/
Exhibition at Folia Gallery
from May 15th to June 29th
Opening on May 14
Folia Gallery
13, rue de l’Abbaye
75006 Paris
