Lê Minh Trường (1930–2011) was a North Vietnamese photographer during the

Second Indochina War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

Early years

Lê Minh Trường was born in 1930 in Thua Thien,

Hue In color theory, hue is one of the properties (called color appearance parameters) of a color, defined in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are described as ...

Career

Lê fought for the

Viet Minh The Việt Minh (, ) is the common and abbreviated name of the League for Independence of Vietnam ( or , ; ), which was a Communist Party of Vietnam, communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1 ...

and was part of the unit that escorted Prince Souphanouvong from North Vietnam to the caves at the headquarters of the

Pathet Lao The Pathet Lao (), officially the Lao People's Liberation Army, was a communist political movement and political organization, organization in Laos, formed in the mid-20th century. The group ultimately gained control over the entire country of ...

. In 1956, he was seriously wounded in the head by a piece of flying shrapnel and was declared unfit to continue in a combat unit. This led to his reassignment as a photographer with the

Vietnamese News Agency Vietnam News Agency is the official state-run news agency of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It operates more than 30 foreign bureaux worldwide and maintains 63 bureaux in Vietnam — one for each city and province, including 6 in ASEAN. ...

in 1958 where he was tasked with photographing the

Ho Chi Minh trail The Ho Chi Minh Trail (), also called Annamite Range Trail () was a Military logistics, logistical network of roads and trails that ran from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through the kingdoms of Kingdom of Laos, Laos and Cambodia (1953–1970), ...

. Lê travelled alone and worked with few supplies in the harsh conditions of the mountains and forests, often using water from the Mekong Delta and the cover of the night sky to develop his film.

Accolades

Lê won first prize at the National Photography Exhibition of 1969 and 1971.

References

{{authority control 1930 births 2011 deaths Vietnamese photographers