Cô VN - Creating Opportunities in Vietnam

Upcoming Events

Insistence on Hope: A photo documentary regarding the spirit of the Vietnamese

Insistence on Hope: A Photo Documentary
Exhibition and Auction

Cô VN (Creating Opportunities in Vietnam), proudly presents INSISTENCE ON HOPE, a photo documentary depicting the spirit of the Vietnamese. With over 20 Asia's and America's finest photographers representing a wide spectrum of age, experience, and styles, this expansive and unprecedented collection will be exhibited for the very first time.

Exhibition: Friday October 21, 2005 to November 5, 2005 at Green Rice Gallery (www.greenricegallery.com)
300 South First Street, Suite 310, San Jose, California 95113, (408) 691-6489

Auction: Sunday November 6, 2005 from 2pm-5pm at MACLA (food and wine will be served)
510 South First Street. San Jose, CA 95113, (650) 641-1503

Tickets: Suggested $10 donation

Please contact us at 650-641-1503 or email us at info@covn.org for tickets. Tickets are limited; advanced purchase is strongly advised.

About Insistence on Hope

While most artists attempt to convey aspects of truth in their work, photographers are perhaps unmatched in their integrity to the world as it actually exists. It is the job of the photographer-artist, then, to encompass reality, but in a way that teaches the viewer new perspectives, fresh approaches to familiar topics.

Perhaps no place on earth is better deserving of such a fresh look as Vietnam. In the West, it is almost universally associated with war, death and destruction. But Vietnam is a new nation now, a proud and hectic place that bears little resemblance to the country last seen in grainy newsreel footage of the mid-1970's. In this extraordinary project, Cô VN has solicited work from some of Asia's and America's finest photographers, a group whose only unifying thread is a deep respect for Vietnamese culture, people and landscapes.

While many of the images are beautiful, this is not intended as 'eye candy' for tourists. Instead, we witness beauty in many forms - a young woman, motionless in prayer; a forbidding mountain of salt, providing a meager income for those willing to engage in the harsh labor of collecting it; children playing, children working with livestock, a mother nursing her baby. There is even a sprinkling of iconographic shots of bicycles, women in ao dais and conical hats, photos that ground the book unmistakably in Vietnam. Collectively, these works show a country most of us have never seen, even those who live there.

In this collection, we are blessed with brilliant eyes and unique sensibilities. Their love for the subject shows through, and the result is a warm and truthful portrait that makes this five-thousand-year-old country seem brand new.

The proceeds collected from the auction will be used to benefit Cô VN, a nonprofit group dedicated to improving the working conditions of impoverished Vietnamese women and children. For additional information on Cô VN, visit www.covn.org.