The one who ignites the fun

(Baonghean) - In recent years, Nghe An photography has made a strong impression with the relatively equal and active participation of many artists, many thematic activities, and professional activities recognized by the region and the central government. Among them, artist Thanh Hai is jokingly called by his friends as a "hot" and very active person. He seems to always be filled with the energy of enthusiasm and passion...

On the day the Kitchen God returned to heaven, I had to struggle to keep Thanh Hai sitting down to talk to him. Still not fully recovered from a lingering cold, Thanh Hai still forced himself to get up and drive from Dien Chau to Vinh once a day to “look” at the exhibition celebrating the Party and Spring of Nghe An photographers at the Provincial Cultural and Information Center.

It has become a tradition that for many years now, every year Nghe An photographers have regularly organized exhibitions and displays at the Spring Newspaper Festival as well as photo exhibitions to celebrate the Party and Spring on the occasion of the traditional New Year of the nation. To shape the above-mentioned regular professional activities, or activities such as: North Central region art photo exhibition exchange, Nghe An - Da Nang Art Photo Exchange, organizing field trips to create or sudden exhibitions... it is very necessary to have people who know how to take care of things, be enthusiastic and proactive to connect and organize.

In the limited financial conditions and operating funds of the Provincial Literature and Arts Association's Photography Board, the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists in Nghe An, and the Nghe An News and Art Photography Association, it is not easy to gather a team and come up with ways to attract and mobilize artists to unite and participate in creative activities and exhibitions of art and journalism. However, along with many other positive factors, as the Head of the Art Photography Board of the Provincial Literature and Arts Association, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial News and Art Photography Association, and Chairman of the Dien Chau Literature and Arts Association, Thanh Hai is a person who always "sacrifice" and has made important contributions to building the movement of creation, display and exhibition of Nghe An photography village in recent years.

Born in the year of the Rooster (1957) in Dien Chau, after graduating with honors from the Military Political Academy in 1984, artist Thanh Hai worked as a writer, editor, and photographer for the Defense Technology newspaper of the General Department of Technology. In 1985, he transferred to General Warehouse 763 in Nghia Dan district to work as a propaganda officer and in 1992 he joined the army. Right from the time he joined the army, Thanh Hai, along with senior artists such as Van Hoanh, Bui Xuan Luong, Ha Long Bien..., thought about establishing a provincial art photography club. And Thanh Hai became one of the founding members of the Association of Photographic Artists in 1992, although according to his own admission, at that time his "capital" for creating art photography was zero. Thanks to joining and participating in the association, learning from talented artists in the association, learning from practical experiences in creative organizations, creative camps, and even participating in training courses on artistic photography creation, artistic photography appraisal, and artistic photography criticism organized by the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists, Thanh Hai gradually matured, becoming a truly "professional" member in creation as well as actively organizing creative activities, exhibitions, and having prestige in participating in artistic photography jury panels at the provincial level.

As the President of the Nghe An Literature and Arts Association, Nguyen Thi Phuoc, commented, "Thanh Hai is a person who is willing to travel and work hard. When called, he goes and runs." Whenever an artist friend invites him to go create, Thanh Hai goes immediately, whether it is planned or spontaneous. Even when his family is maintaining a service photo studio, he is ready to close it and go on the road. Therefore, it is not strange that artist friends not only in the province, but also in many provinces across the country, when going back and forth, stop by Nghe An, stop by Dien Chau to visit and hang out with Thanh Hai. It is also not strange that once Thanh Hai planned to go create in Ha Tinh, but then gradually slipped into Da Nang, then further, to Ho Chi Minh City, and when looking back, the "trip" had lasted almost a month. And it is understandable that when people open a restaurant, business is booming. Thanh Hai opened a restaurant on the beach (Dien Thanh, Dien Chau) in 2003, but in 2005 he had to "immediately close the restaurant or else die", because the more he worked, the more he lost... That is the suffering, but also the happiness of people who love to have fun, many of you do. Of course, because he loves to have fun and likes to organize fun events, Thanh Hai is also "hard-working" and proactive in "thinking of many ways" to have the conditions to build and participate in fun events.

Perhaps that is why Thanh Hai's creative themes are quite rich, closely following today's life. He is eager to travel, willing to travel, has a quick, active personality, and is somewhat careless and frivolous, but in his creations, Thanh Hai is quite a meticulous and fastidious person. Therefore, although his works are not many, they are enough to leave an impression on the public. Not really outstanding in talent and sublimation, Thanh Hai has the advantage in choosing the layout, arranging ideas and being patient in waiting, waiting for the moment to shoot, so each of his works has the beauty of hard work and effort.

To have lifetime photos like "Rice Village", Thanh Hai cherished and nurtured for 3 years (from 1999 to 2002) and continuously returned to Bao Nham village (Bao Thanh, Yen Thanh) to climb all the rocky outcrops in search of perspectives, waiting for the moment of convergence and condensation of light, color, seasonal rhythm, human activities... Then after 6 rice harvest seasons, one summer day in 2002, Thanh Hai captured the golden moment of "Rice Village" - a work of light art full of poetry and painting. It both recreates the simple and rustic traditional countryside scene, conveys the feeling of the beauty of the rhythm of the changing cycle of time, evokes the hidden, discreet and pure joy in each signal filled with freshness when the season comes, and is modern and "modern" in the choice of color blocks and perspectives. It is truly a "brainchild" worthy of the Gold Medal in the North Central region 2002 and the national exhibition 2003.

Work: Rice Village. (HCV 2002)

Vietnamese Mothers after the War. (First Prize in Artistic Photography - Journalism 2007) by Photographer Thanh Hai.

Previously, in the painting “With the deceased”, the heroic Vietnamese mother Le Thi Thuong beside her son’s grave at the martyrs’ cemetery of Dien Ky commune (Dien Chau) entered Thanh Hai’s artwork with a strangely calm language. The close-up photo of the old mother with her hair waving, her dry, chapped hand rubbing the name on the tombstone as if pressing it against the face of her child who had not returned for many years. The mother sat in front of the grave on which an incense stick had long since been drained of its contents, leaving only a thin, glowing red paper shell. The mother sat there, her face and eyes no longer having the strength to express her emotions because she was like a stream of dried tears in the long, long months of waiting in endless emptiness and decay. Her eyes seemed calm, soulless, hopeless… but that was not the case at all. Even when she was physically and mentally exhausted, she still waited, still opened her arms to search, embrace, and protect... It was truly a successful portrait of a martyr's mother, a portrait of waiting. This photo also won the first prize in Nghe An Artistic Press Photography in 1997, which was also the first year Nghe An Newspaper organized this award.

It should also be added that, like the general creative trend in recent decades, Thanh Hai's photos are both journalistic and artistic. Works such as Don nang, Sac muoi, Lung linh Hoang Mai, Cua bien Lach Van, ... or photos of new vitality in traditional craft villages, then economic models, economic highlights in urban or mountainous areas, and even photos recreating important moments and events in political and social life that are of interest to many people ... all express the love, sensitivity, and attachment of the artist to life, to his homeland and country.

In any era, artists always have to face the struggle to make a living, to calculate to live, to keep the passion for the profession, for the career, in the current open market economy, this becomes even more fierce. Thanh Hai not only keeps the passion for the profession, but also transmits the love for the profession to other colleagues, that is truly precious!

Ngo Kien