Vietnam: Journey of the heart, 1985-2000

Summary

Creators:

Clifford, Geoffrey, Balaban, John, 1943-, and Smithsonian Institution. Traveling Exhibition Service.

Abstract:

Fifty-two color photographs by Geoffrey Clifford depicting the people, culture and urban and rural landscapes of Vietnam between 1985 and 2000. These photographic prints constituted an exhibition organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES).

Extent:

52 photographic prints : color ; 24 x 36 in. 52 digital objects

Language:

Collection materials are in English

Background

Scope and content:

Fifty-two large format color photographs by Geoffrey Clifford depicting the people, culture and urban and rural landscapes of Vietnam between 1985 and 2000. These photographic prints constituted an exhibition organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). They were shown in multiple American venues between 2001 and 2006, accompanied by text authored by collaborator John Balaban. Much of Balaban's descriptive text has been reproduced in this finding aid.

Biographical / historical:

Geoffrey Clifford's photographic work has earned him international acclaim. His award-winning photographs have appeared in a number of books, magazines, and other publications worldwide. Monographs of his work include Vietnam: The Land We Never Knew (Chronicle Books, 1989) and The Last Days, still photography taken during the filming of James Moll's Academy Award-winning documentary, produced by Steven Spielberg (St. Martin's Press, 1999.)

Clifford served as an army lieutenant during the Vietnam War. In Vietnam he flew helicopter combat and supply missions out of Chu Lai and Da Nang. After his return to the United States, he studied photography and film making, earning a degree in motion picture production at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California.

In 1985, Clifford was included in one of the first groups of U.S. Veterans to visit postwar Vietnam, becoming one of the first Americans to photograph there since the War. Since 1985, Clifford has returned to Vietnam nearly twenty times. He is one of the first foreigners to have traveled the entire length of Vietnam, from the Chinese border in the north to the southern swamps of the Ca Mau Peninsula.

In 1989, Chronicle Books published Clifford's work, Vietnam: The Land We Never Knew, with a preface by Clifford and text by author John Balaban. In 1998, U.S. Congressmen Tom Lantos and Eni Faleomavaega sponsored an exhibition of Geoffrey Clifford's Vietnam photographs in the Cannon Rotunda on Capitol Hill.

Acquisition information:

Photographic collection originally donated to the South/Southeast Asia Library, and transferred to The Bancroft Library.

Physical location:

Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.

Rules or conventions:

Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

Website