Sandy waves by Thai Phien

VietNamNet Bridge – For the first time a nude photo exhibition will open at 93 Dinh Tien Hoang street, Hanoi from November 24 to 27.

The exhibition, namely Spring, will showcase 48 nude photos by photographer Thai Phien from HCM City. This is the first nude photo exhibition licenced in Hanoi and even in Vietnam so far. Recently, the HCM City Department of Culture and Information refused to licence a nude photo exhibition, reasoning that nude photos are unsuitable to the customs and habits of Vietnam.

Previously some nude photos were displayed sparsely in exhibitions and sent to photo contests but they never win high prizes.

The Department of Culture and Information of Hanoi’s licencing of the first nude photo exhibition is considered a “revolution”.

The HCM City Arts Publishing House is printing a photo book of 71 nude photos by Thai Phien, which is unprecedented in Vietnam. Photographer Thai Phien talks about his upcoming nude photo exhibition.

What could you say about your set of nude photos that will be exhibited in Hanoi?

Of 48 photos on display, half of them have not been made public so far. There will be black and white and colour photos, which were taken by old cameras and digital cameras.

What do you guess about the public opinion after this exhibition?

I think it will be praised and blamed at the same time. I am prepared to welcome both. I just hope that compliments will account for 51% and that would be a success for me. However, I’m sure that the winner would be Vietnamese photography in the process of integration and renovation.

Your exhibition is announced at a sensitive moment, when scandals related to unhealthy images are spread and stir up the public. What do you think about this?

I protest pornographic photos. But art is art. It is not true that we immediately have artistic nude photos by taking off others’ clothes. Moreover, it is absurd that everybody is banned from using lighters when a house catches fires. Nobody opposes nude photos on my website www.thaiphinephoto.com.

How about your photo book? It seems that the Art Publishing House is quite open?

No, I don’t think that it’s openness. That’s the job of art makers, the job that requires breakthroughs. Moreover, artistic nude photos are not new, so how can we bind ourselves?

(Source: TNO)