Vietnam in the eyes of an Italian architect

The image of Vietnam in the eyes of an Italian architect is the brightly lit streets of Ho Chi Minh City seen from the window of a high-rise hotel, the long black hair of a girl looking out at Hoan Kiem Lake on a misty morning, small boats on a river branch in Nha Trang, a long river with mountains in the distance in the North, tube-style hotels on a hot summer evening in Hanoi...

Architect Gianpaolo Arena next to a photo of himself. (Photo: Anh Ngoc/Vietnam+)

These small and simple but strangely beautiful corners of Vietnam appeared through the lens of Gianpaolo Arena, in the photo exhibition called "My Vietnam" which opened in the capital Rome on May 22, attracting many Italians who love photography and Vietnam to come and see.

Born in 1975 and working as an architect, Arena travels a lot and is also a photography enthusiast. Arena has just returned from a business trip to Vietnam, serving the architectural and environmental profession, and his simple yet unique photos from many places he has been to are the crystallization of his passion for photography and a deep affection for Vietnam.

Speaking to VNA reporters in Italy, Arena said Vietnam has always been an important subject in American and European films about a devastating war, but a month traveling across the country gave him a completely different perspective. Therefore, the idea of ​​holding an exhibition about Vietnam was conceived during his most recent trip to Vietnam, when he felt moved by the scenes and people he had photographed.

According to Arena, the message hidden in the photos is for Italians, his compatriots, to come to Vietnam and witness with their own eyes the beauty of the land and people here.

Arena is not the first contemporary photographer from Italy to visit Vietnam and, upon his return, to hold photo exhibitions. Six years ago, veteran journalist and photographer Livio Senigaliesi held a photo exhibition on Agent Orange victims in Vietnam.

During the same period, Maurizio Cofini, an internationally awarded photographer, also held three photo exhibitions about Vietnam, with creative perspectives on the lives of Vietnamese people in many places across the country.

Arena's photos are also artistic and topical, but because he is an architect, his photos focus on shapes and straight lines or cuts, the basic materials of architecture, providing viewers with a different perspective on a peaceful and hospitable Vietnam, which is attracting more and more tourists from Italy.

According to Ms. Camilla Boemio, the person in charge of the photo project "My Vietnam," Arena's photos have shown the changes of Vietnam over the years, in the process of integrating with the world, and his simple images of daily life have the ability to attract viewers to want to come to Vietnam.

Present at the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Vietnamese Ambassador to Italy Nguyen Hoang Long also assessed that photo exhibitions like that of Gianpaolo Arena are very meaningful in introducing the Italian people to the country and people of Vietnam, thereby contributing to increasing the number of tourists to Vietnam. According to him, a large photo exhibition about Vietnam is also expected to be held in September at the headquarters of the Lazio regional government, where the capital Rome is located.

Gianpaolo Arena still cherishes his next photo projects about Vietnam. He still wants to continue traveling, taking photos and discovering new faces and places from new perspectives. He plans to compile photos from his two trips to Vietnam into a photo book, and will publish it next year./.

Some works of Gianpaolo Arena:

According to VNA