Book: Around the Hoan Kiem Lake
Book: Around the Hoan Kiem Lake
Around the Hoan Kiem Lake and beyond is the first photograph book of photographer Quang Phung after nearly 60 years working as a freelance photographer in Vietnam. It is bilingual, Vietnamese and English. It presents 100 photos selected from his large collection during his long career with the camera- his unique equiment helping him to express his emotion and thoughts about Hanoi – his home land- as time goes by with significant historical and social changes. As any true Hanoian, he always spends the deep love with inmost feeling for his mother land.
The book includes three parts. The first part, The God – given Quiet Space and Beauty, stresses on the fascinating beauty of Hoan Kiem Lake scene as well as the natural and close attachment of such so many Hanoian generations, from their childhood to the old age.
The second part, Social Stories, shows his private meditation on the social rotation during the long period. Hoan Kiem Lake is like a small society with all rise and fall of happiness, sadness, the good, the evil…
The third part, For Human Soul Self – improvement, is a complete introduction of the pure traditional process of Making lotus tea in Phung Thanh pagoda off Kham Thien street.
All his photographs are naturally snapped, without any arrangement or photoshop modification that makes the local professional photographers much respect him. Moreover, the book is like an original documentation with Quang Phung’s exclusive portraits of Vietnamese personalities such as legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap, composer Van Cao, painter Tran Van Can, writer Nguyen Tuan, which were snapped in the beginning of the 1970s, 20th century, beside Professor John Kleinen’s introduction as an essay on Quang Phung and his photography. He is from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The whole book project is sponsored by Prince Claus Fund Library, the Netherlands, through East West Foundation. It includes 112 pages, at size of 23cm x 28cm, color printed. It is published by Cultural – Information Publishing House, Hanoi, and distributed widely in the beginning of June 2011.
