Lawrence D’Attilio’s Personal Statement About Vietnam
My Vietnamese friends have taught me many things about life, art, and spirit. That, and five years of gratifying experience have led me to feel I am an insider. Getting an informed view from the inside is a necessity to make photographs that present the real place rather than a foreigner’s presumption of it. Great photography should do that.
People say I am so passionate about Vietnam and it is for many good reasons. From our manager Miss Hoa Thanh Pham to fellow photographers Huy and Khanh and so many others, the last five years of making new Vietnamese friends have brought my wife Pam and me the greatest rewards. Our network of Vietnamese friends and associates have opened their hearts and doors and that of their country to us, revealing their feelings and personal views and a sense of day to day life.
It is humbling to witness how far Vietnam has developed after struggling for a thousand years to become an independent, free, unified country. The country’s growth makes it seem as if it is on spiritual steroids, thrusting itself before the world with a population in which more than half are under the age of thirty five. Perhaps the Vietnamese’ individual humility, passion, and respect for the earth stimulated this achievement.
There is a lot about photography technique and expression that I enjoy teaching. But honestly just being around the Vietnamese people and culture has taught me a lot about the images I make and my own work has grown as a result. That is one more reason I love Vietnam and am devoted to doing my little part to increase people’s relationships to it. I believe your work will grow that way too especially due to the Vietnamese sense of candor and penetrating way to see things.
I know Vietnam will change your perspective on the world and I encourage you to join me in this experience. If you come I hope you will leave Vietnam with a strong sense of your own creative soul. The Vietnamese have a great love for Westerners. My goal is to inspire you to create a visual story showing your care for them too.
Weaver - Hoa Binh Province