http://www.newtimesslo.com/art/4763/visiting-charlie/
A photography exhibit celebrates Vietnam's beauty and history
BY ASHLEY SCHWELLENBACH
August 4th, 2010
Pete Pepper left Vietnam in the spring of 1968, after serving with
the 101st airborne division for more than a year and a half, first as
a lieutenant and then as a captain. But leaving Vietnam was not the
same as forgetting what had happened there, what he had done and seen
and the people who had served beside him. So he returned.
In 2002 Pepper returned to Vietnam with his son, and again in
February of 2010 when he rode a motorbike across the country. But the
trip that's most poignant is the one he took with four of his fellow
paratroopers in April and May of 2009. He hired Randy Allen of Rand
Productions and photographer Vincent Shay to document their
experience. Pepper hopes to complete a film shot during their travels
by October. In the meantime, Shay is exhibiting some of his
photographs of Vietnam at the Photo Shop through Aug. 15.
The Vietnam depicted in Shay's photographs is vibrant and personable,
any evidence of war lingering in the shadows. Shay describes the
exhibit as comprised of "the scenic stuff." The photographer had
traveled before, but never to Vietnam, and never with veterans who
had waged war in that particular location. Mostly, Shay had worked on
surfing and other outdoor projects.
"Every photo has a story behind it," said Shay of his "Glimpse of
Vietnam" images. And many of the typical surface how-I-got-this-photo
stories have another narrative that dates back more than 40 years.
"Friendly Bridge" depicts a smiling Vietnamese man straddling a
motorcycle in the center of a bridge. Pepper had been stationed on
the other side of the structure, but you'd never know it to see the
photograph.
The travel itinerary was dictated by the soldiers' experiences during
the wara village where a woman whose father had been killed by one
of the soldiers resided, a monastery where a soldier feared he had
accidentally killed a French priest. When Pepper first returned to
Vietnam with his son, some Vietnamese citizens asked him to indicate
on a map the places that he had served. He wound up circling 19 locations.
"We moved around on average once a month," explained Pepper, without
a trace of resentment. "They liked to use us to stir up trouble. When
they thought there was a high concentration of the enemy, they sent
us in to see if it's true."
Shay's photographs were a side project during the journey, and his
attitude about the images is humble.
"We didn't wait for good light," he explained. "We were running. We
were going. I don't think anyone else couldn't do it. But the photos
had the experience tied in."
Shay's photos line two walls at the Photo Shop, and the shorter of
the two walls is filled with black and white photographs, mostly
portraits of faces, and hands. He captured the images in a small
village they visited near the end of the trip; Shay wouldn't reveal
why the group was at the village, except to say that it was
significant to at least one of the soldiers. Two of the photographs
taken in this village are sisters, or, at least, their subjects are.
An elderly woman smiles out from the photograph beside an image of
hands clasped together, skin folded over with age.
But the longest wall is filled with colorlong streaks of color
reaching out of the darkness to indicate the bustling nightlife of Ho
Chi Minh, formerly called Saigon.
"This is the first night we got into Ho Chi Minh," he narrated. "When
we got there we were just overwhelmed. We'd never seen such utter
chaos." The photographer's disorientation is reflected in the title,
"Controlled Chaos." In "Capitalism" a laughing woman is in the act of
blowing a water buffalo horn, one of the many, many items for sale in
the country. Smiling, friendly faces are everywhere, the only
exception being Shay's favorite photograph from the trip, titled
"Glimpse." A young girl looks uncertainly at the camera from her
mother's arms. Though her mother is smiling beneath a wide-brimmed
hat, the image reflects the country's bittersweet relationship with the west.
As part of his effort to lay old demons to rest, Pepper corresponded
with an expatriate vet now living in Ho Chi Minh, and arranged to
have the party of American vets interact with the Vietnamese soldiers
they had fought against.
"We got to know them, got to put a face to the enemy, got to
demystify them," said Pepper.
For nearly 40 years Pepper had no contact with the men he had
commanded. He worked, owned a video production company, raised a
family, and retired in San Luis Obispo.
"I didn't have contact with these vets until the winter of 2004,"
said Pepper. "I thought no one was meeting and just couldn't find
folks. And they found me about six months after my wife died. Their
timing was impeccable; I needed to be found."
--
Arts Editor Ashley Schwellenbach is travel-hungry. Send world maps to
aschwellenbach@newtimesslo.com.
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