The young man restored more than 6,000 photos of martyrs: "We are like children in families"

On the evening of March 23, Phung Quang Trung was honored as one of the 10 Outstanding Young Vietnamese Faces of 2024 in the field of social activities by the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union.

Phung Quang Trung, born in 1996, from Hai Duong, used to be a marketing employee. Later, Trung decided to put his job aside and pursue his passion for photo restoration, starting his journey to bring images of martyrs back to their families.

After 4 years of working with colleagues, the Skyline group founded by Phung Quang Trung has restored more than 6,000 photos of heroes, wounded soldiers, and martyrs in the S-shaped land.

Phung Quang Trung and his colleagues have restored more than 6,000 portraits of wounded and fallen soldiers. Photo: NVCC

Decorating wartime photos

Recalling the early days, Phung Quang Trung said that this journey was a “fate”. The first photo Trung took was a request from a nephew, who wanted to restore a photo of his uncle, a martyr who died in the resistance war against America. After three nights of working on it, Trung went to the place to deliver the photo to the family. Holding the photo in his hand, the martyr’s relatives could not hold back their tears, tears of satisfaction and happiness at having fulfilled their wish. That image touched Trung’s heart, motivating him to pursue the journey of embellishing heroic memories.

Trung gathered like-minded colleagues and aspirations to form the Skyline group, with the mission of restoring old photos. As the group leader, Trung is the connector to maintain and create close connections between members. “In a collective environment, there will be many different opinions and positions. However, I will always be the one to share and contribute in a positive way so that the members in the group can understand each other and improve every day. That is the guiding principle for the Skyline group to operate and develop further,” Trung shared.

Each photo will be restored by the group in about 1-2 days depending on the difficulty of the documents provided by the martyr’s relatives. On the contrary, there are photos that have completely lost all details, and there are even martyrs who do not have any photos at all, taking up to half a year to complete. This requires Trung and the members to spend a lot of time and effort to carefully research each detail and discuss with the family. Based on the image of the relative with the most similar facial features and lines to the martyr, the group starts to sketch the rough version, from which it creates a springboard to restore the most realistic portrait, which according to Trung are “unimaginable pictures”.

Each photo that Skyline group recreates contains its own emotion and story. Photo: NVCC

According to Phung Quang Trung, each photo contains a unique emotion and story. Therefore, the group always focuses on depicting the eyes, trying to accurately portray the spirit of the heroic martyr. Because "the eyes are the windows to the soul", they are an important factor that determines the "soul" of the photo. At the same time, during the restoration process, Trung and his colleagues constantly discussed with the martyr's relatives. Because the support and comments of the family about whether the photo is real or beautiful are the core factors that contribute to the complete restoration of the value of the work.

In addition, the happiness of Trung and the members of the group when doing this work is to hand over the restored photos to the families of the martyrs. "It feels like we are bringing someone back, reuniting with their family after many years apart. Especially for families who cannot find the remains of the martyrs who sacrificed, that photo is a precious encouragement and consolation," Trung recalled.

Continue the brilliant journey

On that meaningful journey of gratitude, there was a story that left the deepest impression on Phung Quang Trung, which was a family in Bac Giang. In October 2024, Trung received a photo restoration of a martyr's family whose Vietnamese Heroic Mother was in critical condition. However, the Mother kept calling her son's name. Contacting Trung, the Vietnamese Heroic Mother's family earnestly wished to have a photo of the Mother with her martyr son. In response to that earnest wish, overcoming the exhaustion after the project trip to Lang Nu (Lao Cai), Trung decided to complete it that same night and send the photo to the family.

The next morning, Trung could not believe it when he received a call from the family of the Vietnamese Heroic Mother. After seeing the reconstructed photo, Mother gradually recovered, was able to talk and eat. Witnessing that perfect moment, Phung Quang Trung and the Skyline group cherished and felt more clearly the good values ​​they were pursuing. "It is not simply a photo, I think it is a source of life, a spiritual medicine for Mother," Trung choked up.

Phung Quang Trung and the Skyline group presented the restored martyr's photo to Vietnamese Heroic Mother Trieu Thi Sung in Bac Giang. Photo: NVCC

The journey of restoring the portraits of heroes and martyrs by Phung Quang Trung and the Skyline group has now become a duty and responsibility to show gratitude to the families of wounded and fallen soldiers. The group believes: "We are like children and grandchildren in families, bringing the portraits of our fathers and grandfathers back into the loving arms of our families." Each hero and martyr who sacrificed their lives has become a part of the nation's flesh and blood, creating the S-shaped strip of land today.

In addition to the successes achieved, Phung Quang Trung is still wondering how to develop a stronger team, restore many portraits and deliver them to the families of martyrs as soon as possible. Because for Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, time is limited. The group always hopes to have more time to continue to try to carry out the project, to promptly express gratitude to the Mothers.

With the journey of conveying the value of gratitude to the generations of fathers and brothers who sacrificed for the Fatherland, Trung hopes to spread this message further to young people. Through that, it is a source of inspiration to promote the creativity of citizens in the digital age, with many ideas and practical actions, expressing gratitude to those who have contributed to the country and the revolution with the motto "When drinking water, remember its source".

In the coming time, the Skyline group will continue to coordinate with agencies, departments, and organizations to carry out larger-scale photo restoration projects. At the same time, the group is actively studying and researching AI technology to produce historical films. Trung affirmed that the members will continuously improve their skills and refine those works to recreate the heroic moments of the nation in detail and realistically.

Source: https://danviet.vn/chang-trai-phuc-dung-hon-6000-tam-anh-liet-si-chung-toi-nhu-nguoi-con-trong-cac-gia-dinh-2025032409102648.htm