These pictures communicate poignant and powerful memories that all of those of our generation have – those who were in Vietnam can almost sense and taste it all again and those who were not remember less stark photographs and less personal from magazines and television. It is as if all of us were and are one family and this is an aching part of our family photo album. The images, the photos, are so good, so moving, and the colors so rich, I expect that at any moment they may come to life – as still photos do sometimes in the beginning of films or on commercials on television. In other words, the color and the shadowing of the photos, the candid nature of each of the shots, the colors of the earth and of the World of Vietnam, raises up vivid memories in me and my friends and my generation. This is a central part of our growing up, our coming of age, our dreams and nightmares. Time has been standing still in these photos as it does often in memory. Beautiful, innocent and deeply troubling they are, and each is a reminder of what we try to avoid thinking about – mortality and the preciousness of youth, of beauty, and of justice in the world. This shows the world as it is, and does not show the world as we wish it would be or was. Two or three of these shots together have more power than all of the slick and over-commentated Network News Videos from the 60s. They remain merely tape – the TV productions. These are fragments of real time and real life. Sometimes a photograph – or a collection of photographs –is so powerful that it defies description or comment and all that one hears from the viewer is, “oh!” That is all. That pretty much says it all.
Larry Engelmann is the author of six books including Tears Before the Rain an Oral History of the Fall of South Vietnam