Workshop "50 years of Vietnamese photography developing with the country"

(NADS) - On the afternoon of November 18, in Hanoi, the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists held a workshop "50 years of Vietnamese photography developing with the country".

The workshop was chaired by delegates including People's Artist Tran Thi Thu Dong, Vice President of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations, President of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists; People's Artist - Journalist Ho Sy Minh, Permanent Vice President of the Association, Head of the Photography Theory and Criticism Board and People's Artist Le Nguyen, Vice President of the Association, President of the Arts Council.

Attending the ceremony were: Associate Professor, Dr. - writer Nguyen The Ky, former member of the Central Committee, Chairman of the Central Council for Literature and Arts Theory; People's Artist - painter Vuong Duy Bien, Vice President of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations; National Artist Ma The Anh, Director of the Department of Fine Arts, Photography and Exhibition, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Mr. Dinh Van Thuan, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Arts, Central Propaganda Department; Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan, Vice President of the Vietnam Cinema Association.

On the side of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists, there were Artist Tran Thi Thu Dong, Vice President of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations, President of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists; Artist - Journalist Ho Sy Minh, Permanent Vice President of the Association, Head of the Photography Theory and Criticism Board; Artist Le Nguyen, Vice President of the Association, President of the Arts Council.

Artist Tran Thi Thu Dong, Vice President of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations, President of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists delivered the opening speech at the Workshop.

After the country's reunification, Vietnamese photographers continued to promote their strengths in capturing authentic and vivid images denouncing the invaders in the South and North, images of the Vietnamese people's wholehearted support for friendly countries and vice versa, images of friends from around the world helping to invest in the development of Vietnam. Many images of the beauty of the country and people of Vietnam, the development of the economy, culture, society, national security and defense were introduced to the people of the world, preserved as historical documents, reflecting important milestones in the history of the development of Vietnam in the late 20th century and early 20th century.

The past half century has also been an important period in which the Vietnamese photographers have developed in both quantity and quality. From 71 members attending the first National Photographic Congress in 1965, the Vietnam National Photographic Association now has 1,075 members. With the spirit of the previous generation nurturing the next generation, the next generation respecting and learning from the previous generation, expanding the forms of activities, the members of the Vietnam National Photographic Association have been creatively active in all provinces and branches nationwide, contributing positively and effectively to the development of a rich, multi-ethnic culture in the Vietnamese ethnic community. Photography is truly becoming an indispensable cultural development activity in the artistic life and spiritual cultural life of people not only in Vietnam but also around the world.

The Vietnam Association of Photographers and Vietnamese Photographers will always remember the advice and mission that President Ho Chi Minh and the State assigned in Decree No. 147/SL dated March 15, 1953: "Photography must be for the people, for the country, must reflect the life of fighting and defending the Fatherland, must expand international exchanges"...

Looking back over the past half century, implementing the direction of the Central Propaganda Department, the Resolution of the 9th National Congress of the Vietnam Photographic Association, the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Photographic Association decided to organize a scientific conference with the theme "Vietnamese Photography - 50 years of development with the country" to affirm the basic achievements of the Association as a Political - Social - Professional Association. Also through this conference, to absorb the intellectual contributions of the collective, of scientists and dedicated members, at the same time to realize what has not been done, need to continue to innovate so that Vietnamese Photography can develop more strongly in response to the country's innovation requirements.

Artist Ho Sy Minh, Permanent Vice President of the Association, Head of the Photography Theory and Criticism Board, presented a paper.

Artist Ho Sy Minh, Permanent Vice President of the Association, Head of the Photography Theory and Criticism Board, Head of the Organizing Committee presented a speech.

Artist Le Nguyen, Vice President of the Association, Chairman of the Art Council

The workshop also focused on a comprehensive and in-depth assessment of Vietnamese photography 50 years after the country's reunification; affirmed achievements, pointed out limitations, drew lessons, and proposed tasks and solutions for the development of Vietnamese Artistic Photography in the new period.

Through the activities of the 50-year summary workshop, affirming the role and important contributions of photography, art and artists to the cause of national construction and defense, affirming the attention of the Party and State to literature and art; at the same time, continuing to thoroughly and deeply grasp the Party's viewpoints, policies and guidelines on literature and art, thereby clearly defining the responsibility towards the country and the people in the new period.

Associate Professor, Dr. - writer Nguyen The Ky, Former member of the Central Committee, Chairman of the Central Council of Literature and Arts Theory;

People's Artist - Painter Vuong Duy Bien, Vice President of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations

Encourage, motivate and promote the talents and enthusiasm of artists and creators of works of high artistic and ideological value, contributing to fostering and strongly arousing patriotism, self-reliance, strength of national solidarity and the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country.

The conference received 27 papers from 26 authors, of which 25 authors were members of the association and one author outside the association was a lecturer at Hanoi National University majoring in visual arts. The papers had good content, were carefully invested, intelligent, and passionate about photography, and were systematically researched and exploited. Many authors were living historical witnesses who had held many positions at the association and were holding key positions in the association. Many quality papers with new information deepened the value and importance of photography over the past 50 years.

Artist Le Xuan Thang, former Vice President of Vietnam Association of Artists

The workshop aims to summarize, comprehensively and deeply evaluate the outstanding achievements of Vietnamese Photography over the past half century, recognize the shortcomings and limitations and propose solutions for Vietnamese photography to continue to develop and achieve the goals set out in the development strategy of Vietnam's cultural industry:

Issues that need to be emphasized and paid attention to today include: specific mechanisms and policies on photography, human resource training, especially young talents, the development of the photography industry, the combination of photography and other economic sectors such as tourism, theoretical and critical work, focusing on investing in digital technology infrastructure to promote and trade artistic photographic works, etc.

Proposing useful solutions to build and develop Vietnamese photography in the coming time so that photography needs to focus on overcoming existing limitations, comprehensively promoting all aspects of state management as well as association work, promoting creative potential, sense of responsibility of cadres and members, the role of social criticism of the Vietnam Photography Association with state management agencies to continue to remove difficulties and obstacles of photography, institutionalize the Party's resolutions on culture, literature, art, develop the Vietnamese photography industry in a modern, integrated direction, imbued with national identity, well meeting the needs of the cultural and spiritual life of the people.