Saw a Nat Geo special on TV the other day: (sorry if it's been posted before)

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/explorer/exp012002.html

Tim Page returns to Vietnam where he worked in the 60's as a start-up photog looking for adventure both in the field and in night clubs, until his head was injured and lost 20% of his brain (his exaggeration?) and about 2 litres of blood.

Vietnamese photogs like Mai Nam are interviewed. One of them tells us how he emptied the powder from bullets and ignited it as a kind of flash to shoot inside a huge underground bomb shelter with ASA 100 film. (There were actually a whole community living there for 2 years. Some of those people are reunited with the photog after some 30 years.) Also among those used by local photogs were a Practica SLR (almost got its owner killed when he tried to photograph the shooting choppers flying ahead while he was lying in the vegetation feigning death) and a Contax II (or its Kiev clone.)

Tim Page used a Leica M2 (and Nikon F) in the 60's, an M4-2/-P with 28mm Elmarit today.

Great photography from both sides of the war. The stories about the people behind and before the lenses are very moving too.

The DVD is coming out in late May and I recommend it to anyone interested in war photography or the 'Nam.

Also see http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/01/0128_020129vietnambook.html

-- Andrew (mazurka@rocketmail.com), May 07, 2002

Answers

If you want to read more about Tim Page I can recommend his book "Derailed in Uncle Ho's Victory Garden". His book "Page after Page" is out of print, I'm still on the lookout for that one. Lastly there's an TV movie about Tim Page's Vietnam war exploits titled "Frankie's House" starring Iain Glen and Kevin Dillon (Leica's galore!).

-- Bert Keuken (bkkn@wanadoo.nl), May 07, 2002.

Bert, check here: http://www.abebooks.com/ There are loads of Tim's books there.

-- Alec (alecj@bellsouth.net), May 07, 2002.

Thanks Alec!

-- Bert Keuken (bkkn@wanadoo.nl), May 07, 2002.