Vietnam’s long journey under an Australian’s view

Hoan Kiem Lake

Thirty-four photographs depicting the length and breadth of Vietnam’s cultural, historical and literal landscape are now on display at the ‘For Momentum of the River’s Flow’ exhibition in Hanoi by Les Horvat from Australia.

Through photos, he re-presents spaces charged with historical meaning in their new guises, such as an ex-Australian army base now overgrown with thick foliage and a long out-of-use American radar station still standing in ruin. In another image, past and present abut one another where modern city lights streak across Ho Chi Minh Municipal Theatre in Saigon. As a foreigner, Horvat attends to the details of particular sites that the locals might ignore in their everyday pursuits and he brings with him a strong sense of global history to attach to the local details.  Horvat sees Vietnam as ever changing and forward marching, which is why his multi-angled consideration of historical sites is so central to this series.

“Momentum of the River's Flow is a reference to the inevitable and unstoppable power of Vietnamese society. A society that seeks to move forward, no matter what the obstacles, no matter what the risks and no matter what the challenges, as in the inexorable flow of the metaphoric waterways that lie at its heart,” said Horvat.

Les Horvat spent over twenty years working as an award-winning photographer in a career at the leading edge of commercial, advertising photography in Australia. He has won numerous awards including the Kodak Professional Photography Achievement Award, Gold and Silver at the Australian Professional Photography Awards, and has been accepted into the Fuji ACMP Collection. In 1999 he also achieved Masters status within the peak photographic industry body, the Australian Institute of Professional Photography. He has also co-authored a photographic text on digital imaging, published worldwide in four languages, and now up to its third edition. He continues to undertake his own photographic projects, exhibiting regularly in group and solo shows whilst working at Photography Studies College (Melbourne) as a photographic educator.

The exhibition runs until July 5 at Bui Gallery at 23 Ngo Van So street, Hanoi.

Phu Quoc harbour