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Episode 3033 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a conversation with Andy Pham, a good friend of this podcast, David Levinthal and Lon Holmberg. Levinthal and Holmberg have recently published picture books about the Vietnam War.
In his latest book, David Levinthal explores the visual lexicon of the war in Vietnam through photographs that have thunderous, visceral impact. The images showcase the artist’s sophisticated handling of photographic tools and techniques to dramatize figures and dioramas based on the war. His reflection on the consequential effects of the conflict on American popular culture and the artist’s own memories of the era, Vietnam is haunted by the legacy of movies like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket and recontextualizes Hitler Moves East, Levinthal’s breakthrough body of work made with Garry Trudeau just as America was withdrawing from Vietnam. With written contributions from French novelist Bernard-Henri Lévy; and art historian and curator Lisa Hostetler, the volume takes visual inventory of a war that shattered conventional ideas about America’s geopolitical power, the national psyche, contemporary social relations, and mass media.
Holmberg’s book Crossing the Pass of Clouds: An Army Photographer’s Vietnam Journal is an intimate portrait of the last years of the Vietnam War in 147 black-and-white pictures and a series of vignettes written by photographer Lon Holmberg. As the photographer for American Commanding General Creighton Abrams, Holmberg had the opportunity to document pivotal moments involving a range of influential historical figures. Among the many remarkable images Holmberg has captured are photographs of South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu, US Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger during his journey to China, a trip that paved the way for President Nixon’s historic visit the following year.
Listen to Episode 3033 and discover more about Lon Holmberg and David Levinthal picture books about the Vietnam War.
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