TOKYO-2016 People / Family

My mum 2

  • Prize
    Bronze in People/Family
  • Photographer
    Viet Van Tran

My mum I was very sad and sorry not to photograph the last two years of my dad's life. But at that time, I always worried, stress and unable to sleep.. And now, I put all the repressed energy to shoot my mother. My mother is a 83 years old resourceful wife, a dedicated mother, and a woman of strong will and mind. She has, through teaching herself, become a successful literature researcher and critic, with her renowned works, and an award granted by the Vietnam Writers’ Association. She has two sons – one being me (a journalist) and the other being my brother (an artist), and has managed to raise us successfully, despite great difficulties at times, notably during the period of the war. My family was enjoying a peaceful life, until one day in late 2012 when my father developed a serious illness, which lasted for nearly two years before he passed away. During his illness my mother took care of him every day, whether he was being treated at the hospital or at home. She never uttered a word of complaint, but the hard time taking care of my father exhausted her. She was afflicted by the diseases of osteoporosis and spine osteoarthritis. She had to eat her meals and undertake her personal hygiene in bed, suffering great pain and many sleepless nights. We tried all means of treatment for her: injections, acupuncture, applying herbal medicine to her back... Over time she struggled to recover, and now she is able to walk and handle things by herself normally. She hates weakness and the thought of giving in. Her favourite teaching of Buddha is: ““The biggest enemy of a man is his own self”. My mum loves me immensely and I loved her very much. But we still exist some disagreements in the conception of conduct for conflict generation. My mum did not like being photographed. And I had to convince my mom a lot. And the process I photographed my mum is the process I connected to her, to understand her more deeper ... And I've discovered many interesting things that I never knew about my mum, the love of parents ... My mum was keeping all the letters my dad sent when they love each other until later when married, my dad go away when wrote to my mum. My project “My mum” started in February, 2016, and it is still being implemented. The last thing I want to say is “Now, my happiness is seeing my mum when I wake up every morning”. Because I knew Birth- Aing- Sickness-Death is the eternal rule.

Cultural Bachelor degree in 1996. Trained by famous photographer as James Natchwey, Gary Knight, Tim Page, Steve Northup, Gaby Sommer…in workshop of IMMF (Indochinal Memory Media Found). Currenly work as special reporter for Lao ??ng newspaper (one of the biggest newspapers in Viet Nam). 10 solo exhibions and over 30 group exhibitions (USA, UK, France, Italia, Grecee,Spain, Urugoay, Argentina, Singapore, Rumania,Thailand…),