Photos by Thomas Billhardt were exhibited in Helsinki in 1969. (Photo courtesy of Thomas Billhardt) Hanoi (VNA) – A German photographer tried to capture the essence of the capital city of Hanoi as it went through the most difficult time of war decades ago. Thanks to these rare shots, Thomas Billhardt has been nominated for Bui Xuan Phai – For the Love of Hanoi Awards.
The German photographer, who was born in 1937, said he felt extremely emotional and happy upon hearing about the nomination. The reason is that the theme of the awards is love for Hanoi. That’s something he always keeps in his heart and tries to show through his photos.
Billhardt’s mother is a freelance photographer who has her own photo shop. It was from her that he first developed his love of photography and gained knowledge about the profession.
Later, he became a photojournalist and traveled around the world as a representative of various news agencies and the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
When he came to Vietnam for the first time in 1967 with a film crew of the German Democratic Republic, the photographer saw the brutality of the war through ruined buildings and continuous sirens. At that time, Hanoi was suffering from raids by American warplanes.
Photos taken during these trips were published in four picture books by Thomas Billhardt: “Pilots in Pajamas” (1968), “Aspirations for Peace: Vietnam” (1973), “Hanoi - The Days before Peace” (1973) and “Faces of Vietnam” (1978). In 2020, he published a photo book entitled "Hanoi 1967-1975" and held an exhibition by the same name in Hanoi. In addition, images of the war in Vietnam have been exhibited in Germany, Sweden and Russia, making him famous around the world.
German photographer Thomas Billhardt. (Photo courtesy of Thomas Billhardt)The 1967 – 1975 period was a harsh time for Hanoi. People suffered from food and water shortages, but their smiles were still seen.
“The compassion and tolerance of the Vietnamese people at that time was great. Human love and mutual support are something you can easily see,” Billhardt shares in his photobook.
The thing that he feared most when working in wartime was not bombs but running out of film, Billhardt told VietnamPlus.
Cover of a photobook “Hanoi 1967-1975”. (Photo courtesy of Thomas Billhardt)
Billhardt said he had taken many photos of Vietnam in wartime, but there was one incident in particular that he would never forget.
It was 1972. He was taking pictures from the balcony of a hotel in Hanoi when suddenly there was a squeal, followed by a big hit which was about 200 meters away from him. Then he saw a column of smoke rising. It was a remote-controlled missile.
“Normally, the Vietnamese air defense forces often send out alarms about bombing raids, so people can quickly enter the shelter. However, there was no alarm for this raid,” he recalls.
Billhardt rushed to the hospital and took pictures of the victims of the attack. Images from this moment would haunt him for the rest of his life: A man who had been savaged by hundreds of pieces of shrapnel; a three-year-old girl who had lost her leg; and in a remote area of the hospital, a grieving grandmother sitting next to her dead five-year-old grandson.
“I didn’t want to photograph dead or injured people to become famous, but at the time I couldn’t do anything but take pictures,” he said.
Billhardt said that he had wept. Although he knew that the grandmother did not understand German, he still told her that this photo would be published to let the world know about the war in Vietnam.
After the war ended, Billhardt returned to Vietnam several times to see the country he loved. He looked to the characters in his photos to see how they lived during the peaceful years.
The German photographer and Vietnamese soldiers. (Photo courtesy of Thomas Billhardt)
In 1999, his photographs were displayed at Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square in Hanoi. A man with a tearful face approached him. Through a translator, he learned that this was the father of the five-year-old boy who died in the 1972 attack.
The man invited Billhardt to his house. He placed that same photo which Billhardt had taken of the boy and his grandmother in the hospital on his altar, because it was the only picture of his son.
After that meeting, Billhardt committed himself to continuing to introduce photos of Vietnam to the world.
“I hope that through my old and new photos of Vietnam viewers will understand more about Vietnam and love this country as much as I do. I have met warm and resilient people. I want to spread my impressions and memories of Vietnam to the world,” he said./.
