Jeffrey Wolin Opens Portraits Exhibit at Lyon Septembre de la Photographie, 9/9

Indiana University photography Professor Jeffrey Wolin titled "From All Sides: Portraits of American and Vietnamese War Veterans" at Lyon Septembre de la Photographie, an international biennial in Lyon, France, opening Sept. 9. The biennial will include the work of photographers from around the world, as well as performances by dancers in the evenings during the festival.

The 20 large format prints (24 inches by 30 inches) Wolin selected for the exhibition feature both American and North and South Vietnamese veterans, expanding on previous work that featured solely American veterans. "Inconvenient Stories: Vietnam War Veterans," opened at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago in 2005 and traveled to other museums in the U.S. beginning in the summer of 2007, also spawning a book by the same name from Umbrage Editions of New York.

"From All Sides" will be on display at the Fondation Bullukian, a first-time partner in the biennial.

Wolin, Ruth N. Halls Professor of Photography at Indiana University, said it was an American Vietnam War veteran he had previously photographed, John Linnemeier, who suggested photographing veterans from "the other side" of the Vietnam War.

This led first to a series of photographs of South Vietnamese veterans living in various U.S. cities. An initial exploratory trip to Hanoi in 2007 convinced Wolin of the viability of extending the project to North Vietnamese Army veterans. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted Wolin permission to tour Vietnam for his project; the ministry provided a translator, and Wolin brought along Linnemeier.

Wolin was invited to lecture about "From All Sides" at the SloWar conference in Moscow Sept. 1 (the anniversary of the beginning of World War II) at which 30 participants from 14 countries share a personal concept of war. (Wolin has a scheduling conflict, but will submit a video presentation.) For more information on Jeffrey Wolin and to view more of his images, see http://www.jeffreywolin.com/index.php.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Indiana University

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