The Soul of Vietnam: a Portrait of the North explores one of the world’s largest populations’ profound transformation into a global power. Of all the rapidly developing countries of Southeast Asia, perhaps Vietnam is changing the fastest; the country is becoming unrecognizable from only a decade earlier.
LAWRENCE D’ATTILIO is a life-long ne art photographer who, early in his career, studied with Ansel Adams. D’Attilio rst arrived in Ha Noi in 2006 with his wife Pam, on the cusp of this wave of change. What he found, a country poised on the edge of an economic revolution, compelled him to return again and again over the next ve years. His fascination with Ha Noi morphed into a fascination with its people: their character, their intensity, their ability to stay in the present while looking forward. D’Attilio undertook to see into the layers of Vietnamese society; many of his images capture the everyday. Returning year after year, eventually spending sixteen months in the country, living in Ha Noi, exploring the highlands, as well as the northern mountain region near China, and to villages that have economies based on women’s micro-lending programs.
The Soul of Vietnam: a Portrait of the North is D’Attilio’s intimate homage over six years to a culture that thinks on its feet, comprehends its place on Earth, and has an increasing perception of its own power. With one foot in the past, its current move into the global arena will be fascinating to observe.
I believe these images mitigate the old idea so many in the West have about Vietnam. It is no longer just rice elds and social conditions determined by a centralized, paternalistic government. LAWRENCE D’ATTILIO
All photographs copyright Lawrence D’Attilio
Exhibition is organized by art2art Circulating Exhibitions
