"Returning from the Dark Dungeon in Victory" won the State Prize for Literature and Arts

The State Prize for Literature and Arts, in the field of photography, has been officially announced. The photo-reportage series “Victory from the Dark Prison” by journalist-artist Chu Chi Thanh is one of two works that won this honor.




Escape from prison (Thach Han River, Quang Tri, spring 1973).

With four photos of an event that took place in the historic Gio Linh land in the early days of implementing the Paris Agreement, perhaps Chu Chi Thanh did not intend to reflect the scale of a prisoner exchange considered the largest in the history of the Vietnam War, but wanted to show the magnitude of the event, the magnitude of peace, of victory, a peace and victory that were only achieved after a journey of nearly thirty years of blood and fire, when the entire nation had to confront the most powerful enemy in the world.

Millions of Vietnamese people sacrificed their lives. Tens of thousands of revolutionary soldiers were imprisoned. The magnitude of the event that the US had to sign the Paris Agreement, withdraw its invading troops, and pave the way for the nation's total victory in the spring of 1975 has been depicted in many articles and images, but with Chu Chi Thanh, the author's approach is completely different. He did not look for images of enemy prisoners bowing their heads and leaving prison camps, or boarding planes to return home. He also did not depict liberated areas with victory flags, rallies, and festivals with bright lights and flowers... He chose the moments when revolutionary prisoners returned to freedom, to life, to peace.




The happiness of the victors (Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Minh Sang and his wife - Nguyen Thi Ha, a rear-enemy cadre, met after 13 years of imprisonment in the same American-puppet prison camps - Quang Tri in 1973).

Perhaps only prisoners who have spent many years in prison, suffering both physically and mentally, can fully understand the price of freedom, and only soldiers and reporters like him, who have cycled hundreds of kilometers into the Central region's fire line, rolled on battlefields and trenches, raised their lenses to face planes swooping down to drop bombs, and "touched" death many times, can fully understand the value of peace and victory.

The setting for the photo-reportage series “Returning from the dark prison in victory” is the Thach Han River. The vastness of the sky and water seems to blend with the feeling of freedom. From the enemy’s boats, bare-chested revolutionary prisoners, wearing only their underwear, rushed into the river. On this side, our soldiers and military doctors also rushed out. The water was foaming white. The Thach Han River, which was red with the blood of soldiers protecting the Citadel yesterday, today was cool with the feeling of peace. The prisoners’ arms were raised high, the arms of those who came to welcome them were spread wide. All rushed to the happiest moment. The moment of peace. The moment of freedom. The moment we met again.

There is no greater joy. There is no greater happiness. To have this moment, the whole country had to go to war. The whole nation had to march. Nearly 10,000 days without stopping. Nearly 10,000 days of stepping on bombs and bullets. The prison was not opened simply by a signature in Paris. It was exchanged with the blood of our compatriots and soldiers in Phu Loi prison, with the pain of many wives who lost their husbands, many mothers who lost their children, exchanged with endless nights in the Cu Chi tunnels "holding onto the enemy's belt to fight", with the "family heirloom" beds and cabinets that the farmers of the Central region brought out to pave the way for our vehicles to go to war... Chu Chi Thanh was not only successful in using skillful techniques to capture "clearly" the peak of joy of victory on the faces of the prisoners in the midst of the most moving things:

The hurried footsteps, the splashing water droplets... but the most important thing is that he forced the viewer to read and think about what was behind the photo and what was outside the photo. What is more touching and sacred than the moment when two revolutionary armies - prisoners and soldiers - burst into each other's arms, their bare backs blending with the colors of their warrior uniforms, the viewer sees tears still rolling down the choking faces of soldiers who had been through the battlefield... We have also witnessed touching photos of reunions, but they are reunions between relatives. Here, it is a meeting of people who have never met. All boundaries between strangers and acquaintances, between the same bloodline or not have been erased. The common will, the common revolutionary bloodline has created an image that is not easy to fade.

The moment of meeting between two prisoners, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Minh Sang and his wife, Nguyen Thi Ha, after many years apart and 13 years of imprisonment together, each in a different place, in an American prison is a photo that leaves many thoughts in the viewer's mind. This photo does not seem to be "easy to read", and even less so for photo critics who always have a "frame" for objective reality. There seems to be a lack of emotional exchange between the main subjects in the photo. There is no look of the wife looking up at her husband as is often seen in photos considered successful.

Here, surrounded by the radiant faces of her comrades, before the affectionate smiling eyes of her husband, the wife seemed to lower her head, one hand clinging to the strands of hair that must have become stiff after more than ten years of torture in prison. The day she left him, she was a girl full of youthful energy, radiant with youth. That youth, that youthful energy was killed by shackles and dark prison. Meeting again, she was now just a young woman whose face was deeply engraved by time and torture. Was it the common "girlish mentality" or the pain of seeing with her own eyes her husband's amputated leg severed by the enemy with a hacksaw, which she had only heard about before, that made her seem to "turn to stone"? It was those questions, those concerns that created a very real, a unique attraction for Chu Chi Thanh's group of photos. And perhaps, after the photos "bursting" with joy of freedom and victory, this final photo is a necessary pause for yesterday's losses.

By awarding the 2012 State Prize to a journalist, a former war correspondent of VNA, once again, the Party and State have acknowledged and highly appreciated the role of the News Agency in the most difficult and challenging years for the nation's destiny. Attaching themselves to the revolutionary cause, always present on the fiercest battlefields, the hottest lands, more than 260 outstanding children of VNA have fallen for the continuous flow of news and photos. Nearly 15 journalists and war correspondents of the News Agency have been honored with the Ho Chi Minh Prize and the State Prize. A writer said: Behind the photos there is another photo - the portrait of the author. Here, it should be added that: Behind the portrait of Journalist Chu Chi Thanh, there is another image - the image of Vietnam News Agency, the place that nurtured and forged that courage, that talent...

According to News - H