Art Talk with British Photographer John Ramsden

Fri 26 Jul 2013, 6 pm
DOCLAB

From DOCLAB:

Hanoi Doclab cordially invites you to the talk of John Ramsden, a British photographer.

John is a diplomat with a life-long interest in photography and the visual arts. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1975 and worked in Senegal (West Africa) and at the East-West disarmament talks in Vienna. He was sent to Hanoi in 1980 as Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy and stayed in Vietnam until 1983. At that time, the country was isolated and very poor, after decades of war. Given only a few months’ notice of the move to Hanoi, John had little time to study the language and culture before setting off. The photographs record John’s growing fascination with what he found as he settled into the country. Taking these photographs was a way for John to explore and get a feel for the way of life. He went for long walks around Hanoi, bicycled out to the surrounding villages and made car trips at the week-ends, always with a camera. John never went back to Vietnam but retains a strong affection for his time there and enjoys reading about Vietnam, especially through the work of its remarkable novelists. In 2010 he had a small exhibition of his photographs at the Museum of East Asian Arts in Bath, to coincide with the 1000 year anniversary of the foundation of Hanoi.

​John will project some images he made in the 1980s in and around Hanoi, give a short talk and have a Q&A.

For more info please visit the website.

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