LIVING EXPAT LIFE

A Love Hard
To Explain
Since her first Vietnam visit in 1990, Catherine Karnow,
a U.S. photographer working for National Geographic
magazine, has returned here many times to document
a fast changing Vietnam. Karnow has launched her
first photo exhibitions in Hanoi and HCMC.
bilateral ties between Vietnam and space,” Karnow recalls. “I started to
the U.S. attracted a large turnout. ask my contacts including Suzanne
TUONG VI

A similar show featuring a selec- Lecht, art director of the Art Vietnam
tion of 30 works — From Darkness Gallery. I asked her what she thought
into Light: 25 years of Photographing if I came up a show there and she said
T

Vietnam — is now on display at the she would think about it. Although
• Full name: Catherine Karnow Caravelle Saigon Hotel. John Gardner, she was very busy with a big exhibi-
general director of the hotel, says tion at her place, Lecht still then sent
• Nationality: American
Karnow’s collection offers an insight me an email to tell that she wanted
• Job: Photographer for National into the past 25 years of Vietnam’s me to have an exhibition there. It’s so
Geographic magazine development and her works. “There amazing!”
are fabulous stories behind these As Catherine Karnow puts it, 25
photographs. Her pictures are re- years has marked the most dramatic
ally about the Vietnamese people and changes for Vietnam. “I’ve come here
By Tuong Vi their spirit: their tenacity, nostalgia, for so long, therefore even a little

C
struggle, forgiveness, creativity, love thing that I might see or hear, I real-
atherine Karnow is no for family and motherland,” he adds. ize that it is momentous. For exam-
stranger to Vietnamese peo- Explaining why it took so long a ple, when I came here in December,
ple because she has been time to make her works known to the I realized there was a convenience
known for her photos of Vietnam wider public, Karnow says it should store next to my hotel. It’s incred-
and especially of the late General Vo be the right time. “I guess just ev- ible! So you should appreciate the
Nguyen Giap. After 25 years, Viet- erything came together for this to be tiny little details that indicate marks
nam has become her defining body the right time. I mean it’s kind of a of those changes.” Karnow says that
of work, with iconic and soulful pho- coincidence although I know nothing she feels excited how far Vietnam has
tographs gracing the publications of is coincident in Vietnam. It’s a coinci- come and how quickly the country
Smithsonian, National Geographic, dence when it is the 40th anniversary has changed with so many positives.
the book Passage to Vietnam, the Ford of Vietnam’s Reunification, the 20th Pointing to a photo hung on the
Foundation and others. year of normalization and by sheer wall at the exhibition in HCMC, Kar-
chance, it’s 25 years since I first came now talks about this photograph that
The Vietnam topic to Vietnam.” has made her moved. “It’s John Ab-
It came as no surprise that Kar- In fact, Karnow says until April bey, a U.S. veteran, and his daughter
now’s first photo exhibition titled last year, she did not have any plan to came to visit, for the first time, the
Vietnam 25 Years: Documenting a make these exhibitions when she re- school that he donated in Quang Tri
Changing Country in celebration of turned to Hanoi. “It was not until last Province,” she says. “They were play-
the 20th year of the establishment of December that I looked for a gallery ing with the innocent, cute little kids
there happily. I took it in December
2012, over two weeks prior to my fa-
ther’s death when I was in Saigon.”
BOTTOM LINES OF CATHERINE KARNOW John Abbey together with his
Catherine Karnow is the daughter of the late acclaimed journalist/bureau D.O.V.E. Fund has provided humani-
chief of Time-Life Stanley Karnow. He tried his best to bring the peoples of tarian and development assistance in
America and Vietnam closer and helped Americans see Vietnam and the Vietnam and as well as communica-
war for what it truly was, and to bring perspective and help bridge divides. tion, education and cultural exchang-
Stanley Karnow won the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1990 and also the chief es. The U.S. veterans of the Vietnam
correspondent for the 13 hour Vietnam: A Television History series winning six War who have been scarred by pain-
Emmy Awards in 1983. ful memories for decades have re-

36 • May 16, 2015

 strategy, and organization to doing it
the right way,” she says.

COURTESY OF CATHERINE KARNOW

The photographer expects to use
her pictures, videos and music for
the project because she thinks the
message will be more powerful, espe-
cially when she wants people in the
project speak for themselves. “It’s not
the length of time of the film,” she
says. “It’s the quality of the content,
story and impact. And for me I will
This photo of Catherine Karnow makes her moved. It is about a joyous day of U.S. concentrate on the people, the hu-
veteran John Abbey and his daughter Courtney Abbey of the D.O.V.E. Fund at the manitarian aspect of the families and
nursery school they built in Quang Tri Province. children who need more attention as
well as struggle for the hardships. I
turned to Vietnam with other veter- pher. While in other countries, people love Vietnamese people so much.”
ans to provide the ultimate healing will look at you like you are carrying For all the reasons she says, there’s
for Vietnamese people affected by the a smelly cat or anything disgusting a kind of something going on with
war. “As an American I feel a respon- or treat you as paparazzi. That’s the her and Vietnam that she says she
sibility,” says Karnow. “Many people huge thing. What’s more, Vietnam- could not describe. “It’s a kind of love
are aware of Agent Orange but they ese people are hard-working. I don’t affair,” she says. “I jumped on a taxi
don’t know what it is until they are hear any Vietnamese complain about for one hour to go around and took
shocked to find out genetic diseases working hard as photographers that I pictures. I went around for shooting
passed down four generations. It’s work with. I can do my job and I can and I just felt like somebody in love. I
a serious problem we have to figure keep going and whoever I’m working did not have the translator. I typed a
this out.” with is cheerful and enthusiastic.” few words in English on my iPad and
The American photographer says put it to translation to tell the taxi
Deep love for Vietnam she reckons that so many opportu- driver that I love Vietnam so much.
and its people nities have been opened up to her I looked out the window and a motor
In her opinion, photography is a and she sees the potentials in doing scooter was slowing down next to me.
difficult career because you have to so much more for Vietnam. “I like to I gave them a smile and they smiled
get a photograph right and fast in shoot more in Vietnam. I like to teach back at me. That would be love in this
seconds. “You have to be much fo- more here. I will have a workshop in country. I’m not grown up in Asia, so
cused, persistent, hard-working and October and many other things, in- for me when I’m around Asia, I don’t
you must have a plan what you have cluding a multimedia project to help think I’m not Asian. I have some
to get access,” says Karnow. “Yet, pho- raise funds for local Agent Orange/ Vietnamese friends and we can talk
tography in Vietnam is not as hard as dioxin victims.” about food for hours. I feel I’m not a
photography in other places because Karnow has raised about US$25,000 foreigner. It’s quite hard to explain
Vietnamese people love photography. from a crowd-funding campaign which that. I’m not Vietnamese and I know I
When you walk down the street with a should be spent carefully and wisely. am terrible with the language. I spent
camera, a Vietnamese person usually “I’m doing that project until the time the first 11 years of my life in Asia
looks at you with a smile. So you feel is right so that I can devote my energy, and then the whole rest of my life
that you’re welcomed as a photogra- thought, creativity, thinking, planning, with Asia and somewhere.” x
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May 16, 2015 • 37