Foundation

The precepts for the IMMF were, from the start, to create a faculty to reproduce the fundaments and skills of the craft that our comrades had given their lives for. The conflict that raged through Indochina: Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, was the first and last where the brutal honesty and truth graced front pages for over a decade. During the struggles and wars for liberation and independence between 1945 and 1975, 135 men and women photojournalists died from all sides. There were over 300 other fatalities in the other branches of the media. They had captured that fatal truth and turned awesome frames into anti-war statements. They garnered every award and citation awarded during their lives.

The foundation manifested in 1997 with the publication of the book REQUIEM which I authored with Horst Faas. The REQUIEM exhibition toured after its debut at The Freedom Forum in Arlington, Virginia. It has now come to its permanent and rightful rest in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. It is still touring globally with its regional message. As a springboard towards an educational institution, a workshop has been created, each course inducting up to 35 aspirants and future mentors in the craft. Parallel workshops have also been run by the Thai chapter of the IMMF, which has so far successfully self-funded. The dream of a permanent physical memorial and a faculty are now close to realisation after three, beyond expectations, successful vernissages in Ho Chi Minh then Hanoi. In the memory of those who lit the way with a fatal frankness, the goal replicating, that can now be continued into future generations. Now the prospective looks even brighter with the synergy created with Canon, News Limited, Griffith University and other major corporate bodies.